School Regcognition

[Trevor1523]

Originally Posted by Ari423

I started this thread not as much for recruitment advice (although we could use some of that too) but more for what teams do in their school community to create awareness of their team. I have heard that some teams go to every science class and give a short demo or that some teams are considered varsity sports in their school. I would like to know what other kind of things teams do and whether or not they worked, especially teams that are in the same boat as us and have overcome it to be recognized by their school and community.

Something that we are doing/have already done is going to Freshman orientation at each of the 3 schools. This is usually a great way to get incoming freshman to join the team.

We do demonstrations at Science Museums.

Another thing we do is similar to what you said about going to the science classes, but my high school has an engineering program that you can enroll in. We usually take a day and show off the robot for all the classes. And this is how probably 8/10 people joined my team from the school.

We also *attempt* to promote ourselves through the school's morning announcements, but we haven't done that in the past years.

[Monochron]

I would say that a good start would be to get a meeting with multiple of your school administrators. Principle, Asst. Principle, Office managers, counselors, etc. and tell them what you told us. They can help in ways such as adding your team to the announcements, putting the team in printed material, and other "official" recognition. Preferably talk to as many of them as you can and get them to agree to help with your recognition problem (that may be a much easier thing to get them to agree to than giving you money)

Look around at the other teams and clubs at your school that DO have recognition. Are there signs about them in the hallways or on buildings? Are they often mentioned during weekly announcements? Are they mentioned in email blasts to parents or students? How do they get their recognition at Pep Rallies? (my school used to announce each team that came onto the floor, make sure you are part of that announcement!)

The first step of getting that stuff done is to get buy-in from the school administration and then KEEP ON THEM until the school publications are including your team regularly. make sure you don't just that task over the wall to them, work closely with them to build that recognition.

[jvriezen]

Another key way to get decision makers on board is to invite them to attend a regional (and offer to drive them if it is any distance away!) Once they see a regional (or district event) they'll much better appreciate the program.

[Trevor1523]

Originally Posted by Trevor1523

Something that we are doing/have already done is going to Freshman orientation at each of the 3 schools. This is usually a great way to get incoming freshman to join the team.

We did this at one of the 3 schools this evening with our 2014 bot as a demo robot, we managed 7 people to sign up for next year.

I think that it's safe to say that a lot of the people will never be seen in the 2016 season, but it's a start.

[Max Boord]

One of the things I have done in the past to raise awareness of our team was to create several different videos using match and shop video shot in the previous seasons. these videos would be played on our school's morning announcements as well as posted to YouTube and social media. While there primary purpose was recruitment, by playing one every day for a week, most school administrators and almost every student was at least made aware of the existence of the team.

On 1065 our teams existence is spread throughout the school by our schools news, and team pictures posted to our school district's homepage after winning an award or competition. An easy way to improve team awareness is to make sure to advertise with clarity. Are you trying to be a team or a club or both? 1065 makes it clear we are a club that designs and builds 2 robots 1-2 days a week between January and March with the intention of competing at 2-4 competitions. Another effective advertising tool is having well designed team shirt that members are ok with wearing around the school. These, combined with posters detailing what your team does, can provide year round reminder of your teams existence along with information on how to join.