Advice for a potential rookie team?

[ichaelm]

I'm thinking of trying to get an FRC team started at my high school. I learned about it because last school year I spent a lot of time with my school's main tech teacher. I remember him mentioning that our school, Harriton High School, used to have a FIRST Robotics team, but it doesn't any more. I assume because of lack of interest. I already spend a great deal of time with robots regularly. I've been in another middle/high school competition, Science Olympiad, for 5 years now, and I always do the robotics events. Last year, the robotics event was called Sumo Bots, which works just like you'd think it would. These were nothing like FIRST, though: the weight limit was 2 kilos, and the rules were a page or two. My friends and I built a bot that got 1st place at the regional and state level, and 8th at the national level (out of something like 4000 teams nationwide). There's a great youtube video of it here. It was the most fun event I've ever done. Unfortunately, they're changing it to a robot arm this year. Of course I'm going to build that too, but I still feel hungry for the excitement of building a real robot on wheels! So I looked up FIRST, and it seems to me like something I'd love to do if I could get the chance. But there are some problems. First of all, there's the money. I've already sent some emails about organizing with the school, but I'm almost positive we're going to need to raise the majority of the money on our own, or through sponsorship. Secondly, so far I only know of 1 other person willing to work on the bot. We have other friends that would be interested, but I doubt we're going to get the 15 or so people it seems like you'd need for this kind of thing to work. And thirdly, I have other obligations. I'm not sure yet how much time I'll be able to put into this over a 6 week span. So I figure I should tap into the experience of those of you who have already been on a team, or maybe even started one! So, any suggestions on how to make this work? My friends and I appreciate any insight you can give me.