What do you need to start a team?

[Keith Chester]

First there must be a spark. One thing I've seen with rookie teams is to not understand FIRST until they SEE the competition or go through the hell that can be build season. If a someone on the team has seen FIRST before though, or has been part of a team before, this can be conveyed pretty easily. Seeing an offseason or actual competition should be required for rookie teams to give them an idea of what they're getting into. Starting a rookie team consists of showing off what's happened previous years in order to trap their imaginations and let it run wild, and prepare them for what shall come. Helping them out by assisting them financially (by lending some students for a fundraiser of theirs or even letting them do a fundraiser at your offseason, for instance) is greatly needed. Though many teams have financial trouble, rookies have no background to use to convince sponsors to pay up. Helping rookie teams by pulling strings or even helping them badger sponsors to near death with requests for money will be a BOON onto that team.

Of course, more generally...

What does any team need other than the determination of a bullet-train, the curiosity of a cat, and a jester's love of fun for FIRST?
Oh yea, a good pizzaria nearby. Never will I forget the face of the lady who wanted to know why little ol' me wanted 8 pizzas with every topping imaginable... for the second day in a row.