a new team

[The Lucas]

Originally posted by KenWittlief
I may be wrong about this - but Im pretty sure when you register your team for a FIRST event, you are required to supply information from the associated high school - faculty point of contact, schools address, principles name...

and you are required to have agreement from the school for students to be out of class to attend events, to travel, liability waviers, ect ect ect.

Unless Im mistaken, if you do not have a high school participating, you must have misrepresented yourself when you registered the team - and you would not be a valid FIRST team.

Someone correct me if Im misinformed here. It would be really cool if a bunch of kids and adults could get together and form their own team, or if a church group, or boyscout troop, whoever - could start a FIRST team

but Im 99.99% certain that you cant do that!

Team 365 was a long standing Boy Scout Explorer Post operating with Dupont before it was a FIRST team. An Explorer Post is a coed division of the Boy Scouts to give students experience in engineering (you know building bridge models and such). In late 1999, members of the Explorer Post decided to participate in FIRST, and The Miracle Workerz were born. The team was officially affiliated with the Boy Scout Explorer Post until 2002, when the Boy Scouts withdrew sponsorship. We officially changed the name of our school from Boy Scout Explorer Post to MOE Robotics Group. We created MOE Robotics Group to encompass the ever-changing group of high school students that join our team.

This year we had 34 high school students from 15 different high schools across Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Also 3 of the students are home schooled, one travels 2 hr to attend meetings. We recruit with assemblies at high schools. We get hundreds of interested people that sign our contact sheets. We never have had to cut people since the list naturally weeds itself down to the ones willing to commit the time and effort required to build a robot. We got many new schools this year but we also lost a couple as the only members from that school graduated.

I used to attend Avon Grove in PA when I was a student on the team, instead of a mentor from UD. Avon Grove for many years was the majority school on the team. Andy Triboletti (now on 125 in Northeastern U) from Avon Grove started the AG presence by asking Jake (now at Drexel and our comp team coach) to drive him to Beech Street Engineering Center (MOE HQ) in Wilmington to attend Explorer Post meetings. Jake and a couple of their friends decided to also attend the Explorer Post meetings with Andy. They were all enthusiastic about becoming a FIRST team. I joined second year as a junior after talking to the guys and watching the assembly. I've been hooked ever since.

We have a minimal connection to the high schools. We get permission from them for absences and to hold assemblies. Some students that have dress codes at their school get permission to dye their hair and wear the team jersey. The schools provide no sponsorship or official support. As for waivers, Dupont has us sign Hold Harmless Agreements since the Boy Scouts withdrew insurance coverage. Dupont Engineering now solely responsible for the team. Jim Porter, VP of Engineering at Dupont, is very supportive of the team, and comes to some meetings and completions. He spoke at Drexel last year. John LaRock is the team's leader and founder. His devotion to the team earned him the Volunteer of the Year award last year at Drexel.

My principal at AG loved to take credit for the accomplishments of the many prominent AG members on the team, especially after we won nationals. In the 2001 National Champion season, AG students held positions like Captain, Driver, Operator, and nearly half the Pit Crew. All my principal ever did was sign a piece of paper and otherwise make things difficult. When we tried to start a team at AG, the school board loved the idea but he turned into a giant road block. If he was in charge of our team it wouldn't have lasted a year.

Unfortunately, you were misinformed Ken. That 0.01% uncertainty was correct, we can have a team without an school officially participating. My team is not misrepresented or invalid, we just accept any student who comes to us ready to learn about engineering. FIRST is for high school students, not high school administration. The great leadership of Dupont Engineers and the MOE Boosters (parents, some of alumni) keep our unique team alive. All you need for a FIRST team is dedicated students and leaders. This is the true spirit of FIRST: total commitment to advancing science and technology among our great nation's youth.