Starting a Robotics Club/Team

[DoronS]

I would also find out who the regional directors for FIRST are in your area. In NY, they are very involved with startup teams, and they may be able to advise or direct resources to you.
Regarding mentors, one of the biggest benefits that they bring is maturity. Because of that, one of our best engineering mentors is a med student, and another is a retired lawyer. That being said, we also have vital mentors who work in the industry, so just be open-minded about who can help. If you are looking for mentors, definitely talk to team parents and to your school's Alumni/Parents Associations.

[DeAnnaC]

Our group started with a local high-school, but the support was dropped after the first year, so the mentors at that time created a non-profit organization and we've been a stand-alone organization since then (2003). The board members and mentors (many are the same) are all volunteer - we have no paid staff.

We have mentors from all kinds of backgrounds, some have (had) children on the team, some of our mentors don't have any kids, they are just professionals in a discipline or have experience that we need. Our students come from 5 different counties, 9 different schools and we have 18 home-schooled students.

We are completely self-sustaining and do our own funding by writing grants and fund-raising projects that we do all year long.

We meet in donated space (basement of a strip mall) and the tools we have were purchased with grants or donated from families tied to the team. Besides the FRC team, we sponsor about 10 Jr FLL and 28 FLL teams each year so we keep students in the program and moving up as they age out of the other teams.

I would contact some local teams and make visits to them during their meetings to find out what they do, how they are organized, how they get their funding and sponsors.

Some teams may have team manuals, certification processes (like the Boy Scout badge program), team outline of job descriptions, etc, that they would be willing to share that may help a new group get organized.

DeAnna

[mom1155]

Also, look for a veteran team in your area to mentor you. If there is a college or university nearby with a physics, programming or engineering major, you may be able to find some professors or FIRST Alumni to help as well.

[SenorZ]

I'm a teacher at my school and am lead mentor/coach. It is almost impossible to do well without a professional or retired engineer helping out. The expertise they can provide in designing and troubleshooting systems is invaluable.

[Rizner]

Just out of curiosity, where are you located in Florida?

Originally Posted by SenorZ

I'm a teacher at my school and am lead mentor/coach. It is almost impossible to do well without a professional or retired engineer helping out. The expertise they can provide in designing and troubleshooting systems is invaluable.

I've also been a mentor with a team that had no engineering mentors (As I was going to school for a degree, myself and a couple other students helped a team that had a teacher mentor and one or two other mentors who weren't engineers helping). This year they got a retired engineering mentor as well, and the process has gone better. It's not impossible to do it without one but it does help.