Advice for a potential rookie team?

[SenorZ]

2011 was my school's rookie year. It was chaos.
But only because we didn't know how much work it was going to be. We didn't do the research. We showed up to our regional with 12 kids and three teachers, myself included. Other rookie teams we saw at a quick build day had 20+ kids, a handful of teachers, and a few professional engineers as well.

My advice is seek out a teacher that believes in the cause. It can be hard but you'll need them to get some of the paperwork done. JC Penney provided us a grant last year, and we're applying again as a second-year team (fingers crossed). They have $10k grants for rookie teams this year. Apply! NASA also has grants. Apply!

FIRST teams do not have to be attached to a single school, so see about getting students from the surrounding area, too.