[FTC:] Starting a new team 2012

[ehochstein]

Hello everyone,

I am currently mentoring two FRC teams in Bloomington, Minnesota. Next year we are looking into starting an FTC team for the high schools, a pilot program of sorts. We would like it to be a Junior Varsity program, with the FRC teams being the Varsity program. For the first year we want 5 students from each high school on the team. One of the five from each school would be a veteran member and the other 4 newbies. We don't really plan on being too competitive, we would rather use it as a learning experience.

I have a few questions for you veterans of the program (the most recent thread I can find on this subject dates back to 2008).

1. How much should we expect to spend on extra parts?
2. Are there any other teams that are used as a Junior Varsity program?
3. If we meet once a week for several hours will we be able to complete the robot?
4. We also have one middle school team in the district, will we be stepping on any toes by starting a high school team?

If you have any other advice I would love to take it.

Thank you,
Evan Hochstein