Presentation Enthusiasm

[JaneYoung]

I'm going to borrow from the BEST Robotics experiences that LASA Robotics has had and tap into the presentation aspects in hopes of helping with your concerns. In BEST, there is a lot of focus on presentation and the more prepared the team is, the better. What we found that worked well in BEST and carried over into FRC is the pairing of newer less experienced members with the veteran members and having them work on different aspects of the team for presentation needs. You can break it down as much as you want, giving insight into how the team runs itself, the build sessions, how the team manages its finances, why partnerships are important, the community that the team comes from, and the goals that the team has set, short-term and long-term. It's also great to talk about the impact of the program on the students and the educational and career opportunities that have become available to them. By breaking down the topics and working on them with the veteran students and newer ones, together, it is educating everyone involved and makes it a very natural experience of enjoying outreach, being prepared, and talking with people.

It is a lot of work and it takes vision and strong leadership that sees this aspect of the team as important. It is also very rewarding and the bonus part of it is that it is a great team-building exercise. Like doing 30 pushups a day only communication skills and thinking are doing the work. You can break it down into a sub-team but it's also an excellent opportunity for all of the members of the team to work on their communication skills and to understand the importance of having them and using them.

Jane

[Jon Stratis]

You can also take a look at the type/format of presentations you're doing. For example, our team presented at the Girls in Science day at the Science Center in St. Paul this past weekend. It was essentially an all day presentation/demonstration, and we had the students show up and work shifts of several hours. It gave everyone a chance to get up and speak about our program, about FIRST in general, and to "work the crowd".

For other presentations, the pool of presenters can be limited by the topic. When we talk about Beta testing, only those involved in Beta testing are present. When we present on electrical at the MN Splash, only the returning members of the electrical team present (although the new members of the electrical team are encouraged to attend, as they'll be presenting the following year!).

Yet other presentations, we may be limited by class schedule - if the presentation is during the school day, many students often can't take off for it.