newbie

[Madison]

Jamie,

Try starting here -- http://www.firstnemo.org/

NEMO is a group dedicated to supporting the work of the folks who keep our teams running and they should be able to answer a lot of your questions.

There'll be more people along shortly, as well, to more specifically answer questions here.

[giantmidget31]

Lunches at the competition:
Some competitions have a pizza service where you can order a specific number of pizzas through the competition.
Others just have an area where you can buy food.
Others have an area to buy food but also offer lunch vouchers that you can buy earlier in the day to get a discounted lunch that usually includes a drink and a snack.
Remember, you're not supposed to eat in the pits.

Freebies/Buttons:
Don't stress about them. A lot of teams have buttons, few have anything else. Just do what is manageable and what your team can afford. In terms of size, it doesn't really matter, just whatever isn't too much money and can fit your team's logo on it nicely. Unless you are going to be changing your button design each year, you might as well make a rather large quantity of buttons (about 200, maybe?). Last year, we brought about 75 buttons, if I remember correctly, and we didn't run out. Are you planning on ordering buttons, or making your own? We make our own and they turn out fine, and they cost less.

[je2164]

We have a company in our area that works with special needs adults and they will be helping us make buttons. We are not planning on changing our design, that's just one more thing to have to worry about each year. One of our kids heard some teams get 300-500 buttons. I don't know if that's to cover several different competitions or not. Sounds like we can shoot for 100 or so for each of our 2 competitions and go from there.? We have a lot of team spirit and the kids are excited to do as much as we can.

Good to know about the lunch thing. We're trying to determine how much to ask each kid for in order to cover hotel, food and any other expenses.

Are there any activities for the kids Thursday or Friday nights? What do you typical do with them to help burn off energy yet not annoy other people staying in the hotels?

[onecoolc]

How many buttons you print depends on the kind of regional you go to. If it's a regional where siblings, kids, and other people show up, you'll need more buttons. If it's a regional with lots of crazy (I use the word affectionately) button collecting teenagers who must get every button, you'll need more buttons.

We've been to the Autodesk Oregon Regional, and the Olympic Seattle Regional. We tend to make 300-500 buttons, and run out every time. When you think about the math that's actually not too unreasonable. These events have 50+ teams, and 10-20 students per team. I'd suggest checking on the FIRST site to see how many teams are at your regional event. (and here's a handy link)

We also use the buttons as promotional materials when visiting elementary schools and the like, and have given out a few hundred in that capacity.

This massive button consumption is made reasonable by the fact that a few years ago our team invested in a button press. It was an expensive decision that's definitely not for every team, but these days we buy the button making materials 5,000 at a time for 9 cents a button.

Other things that impact how many buttons you use will be if the button has a funny/interesting quote or a cool design. Many teens actively seek out the "cool" buttons when they see a friend has one. If you have more than one button design, you can also expect many people to take both.

If you use the same design every year (we do not), you'll need less as time goes on.

The standard size is 2 1/4", although some use smaller and some use bigger.

With all of that said, since I've put way too much thought into buttons of all things, a hundred or so should do you fine for your first year. (Also, it's not a big deal if you run out, and you'll know how to gauge it for the following year.)

Since this is your first year I should mention spirit wise, many teams have a Team Flag that they give to the announcer to wave before every match. If you have extra time after Bag&Tag day, this could be a side project.

Thursday afternoon our team goes out in groups to the area surrounding our hotel to eat at McDonalds, Denny's, etc. Whatever's in walking distance. (Know the area around your hotel beforehand! Be safe, stay in groups, and be back before it gets dark!) Afterwards we head back to the hotel, if there's a swimming pool the team does that. If not they chill, get settled in, and try to sleep.