Why are you teamless?

[Jessica Boucher]

Great topic!

Although there's always a special place in my heart for 237, I am way too far away from them to serve as a mentor (hence why I consider myself an "Alumni").

For my first three years at Babson, I was car-less. Although there are a lot of teams in the area, I am far enough outside of Boston that walking anywhere (especially in the cold & snowy build season) is terrible.

Although the situation may change once I get a job, right now I am working with FIRST through a non-team based role, thus the lack of numbering.

[Ashley Weed]

While I try to travel to competitions as much as I can to support Greg in his new reffing adventures. Being full-time on a team seemed to be too difficult especially through my first year away at school. As I hope to start balancing a lighter course load, I would like to take my new skills from my education and work with the team again soon.

[rbgorbet]

Well, I've never had the pleasure of having a team.

I've been a regional judge, judge advisor, then championship judge, and now Chair of the Waterloo Regional Planning Committee, but have never been associated with any particular team (as probably befits a judge!)

I admire team mentors so much for the effort and hours they put in, and I'm just not sure I could give that much between my job and my family. But I figure that helping to start a new regional and recruiting rookie teams is contribution enough for now!

Rob.

[roboticsguy1988]

It’s a long story. Last year I was a member of G-Force, Team #535 which is now in Markle, IN. Then I and a few of my other friends resigned as a member of that team, for reasons which I will not explain. As far as I know, the G-force team has diminished. Later to become a member of a rookie team, Team THRUST, and then to find out this year, that our rookie registration was denied, after they said it was accepted. They even gave as a team number, which is 1501. I do not know why exactly, from what I heard, so there for this isn't a fact, the denied our registration because of two reasons, one we didn't have a school as a sponsor, and two, because we had members on the team that were previous members of another team. Also, form what I hear, again, not sure if this is true, but since most of our students on the team were previous members of 535, FIRST told us we would have to use that number. Which because of certain circumstances that I do not want to discuss, that is impossible.

So this year I and the rest of my robotics buddies are team-less. In my opinion I think FIRST doesn't understand that this is the only way the students here in Huntington, IN can compete. It makes me sad to think that we will miss out on all the knowledge that we could have gained this year, not to even mention the amount of fun.

I remember when I started Lego league in 2001, it was so fun. After a year of that, I made FIRST my life. And it has been my life every since then. For FIRST to take that away in my opinion isn’t fair to me, or the other students. I want to learn, I want to have fun, and FIRST is the way I want to do that. I love science and technology, I love FIRST, that's my life.

[Denman]

just a quick point, there are still people who dont put their team number down, and who are just too lazy

[Anne Shade]

I graduated from Georgia Tech in May. After spending a few months looking for a job, I was able to find a great one with SAIC here in Maryland so I relocated up here. I decided that it would be a good opportunity for me to take a little break from running a team. I've spent the last 4 years running teams through college and it has been really stressfull. This gives me some time to get familiar with the teams in this area and to see FIRST in a different light for a year. I'll miss running a team, I already feel like there is something I'm supposed to be doing , but everyone needs a break sometimes.

I'll be helping out at whatever events I can get to and doing whatever bigger picture stuff I can till I get back in the team stuff.

[Erin Rapacki]

I wouldn't always associate a #0000 as being a negative thing. As a matter of fact, I think it would be useful if ChiefDelphi.com to offer other FIRST associations instead assuming that all people chatting on these forums have direct team involvement.

For instance I know many people (college students in particular) that instead of being on a team specializes in a certain volunteer position for Regional Competitions. That merits the same recognition. As for myself, I do not consider myself closely affiliated with #125 NU-TRONS. I feel more closely affiliated with Northeastern University and the overall initiative to grow FIRST in Boston; not specifically any one team but an involvement with all teams in the Boston area (existing and yet-to-be). For ChiefDelphi.com purposes I continue my affiliation, but that isn't what I actually do in FIRST.

The 'subtitles' and 'AKA' fields give forum members an opportunity to display what they actually do within FIRST... which is great! It is certainly respectable to have direct affiliation with a team as well. But as FIRST changes & grows, maybe it's time for CD to update the profile system and omit the #0000 in a users profile to allow for other descriptions as: volunteer, event coordinator, FLL, senior mentor program, FIRST employee, or whatever else.


erin

[Wetzel]

I am not currently involved with a team. I was moderately involved with 116 last year, but this year I am now at VCU in Richmond, without a car. I would be mentoring a team in the spring, but I ran out of credits.

(For those of you looking at colleges, ENG 472 at VCU is mentoring a FIRST team, not major dependent and no prereqs)

I am working on making contacts to work at the regional level, and will be volunteering at VCU, and likely The Championship.

Wetzel

[Madison]

Again revisiting the map of high schools in Seattle, I've found that there is another team that's accessible to me by transit and it's only about 20 minutes commute. That's actually less than the time it took to get to meetings last season, despite the location being twice as far away.

The proverbial wrench is, of course, that the team has no website and seemingly no registered members here on CD.com. So, would anyone be willing to access TIMS for me and find contact information for team 488 -- Franklin HS & Microsoft Corp.? PM me with anything you find, please. Thanks a bunch.

There's hope yet that I'll be overworked and underappreciated this winter

[Vin211]

I have found other ways to serve FIRST. I independently scout for any teams that host me. I don't really like to be part of a team. I was on a team for about 5 years. Good years too I may add. I have never forgotten a day I served lol! Now a days, I am moving away from computer programming and consulting to having a larger involvement in FIRST! Judging may be up my alley soon!

[Pierson]

Like others have said.... I am a first year college student and am kinda burnt out from leading my team and doing all of the fundraising for two years. I am focusing on my school work and also working. Though I am not associated with a team, I will be working at (and bring friends) to both the LA and the PNW Regionals.

[Rich Wong]

Top 10 Reason’s why I’m still teamless:

#10 Been there, done that!
#9 Fear of commitment?
#8 I like to play the field... at the regional
#7 I got tired of eating pizza every night.
#6 Now I serve a higher order (in Manchester)
#5 Not enough room to put all the team numbers
#4 My FLL team number kept changing!
#3 Zeros are really Heroes!!!!
#2 I Serve all FIRST teams

and the
#1 I try to maintain an unbiased role in NYC area
(I tend to get silly at 1:30AM)

[Mike Rush]

Originally Posted by rbgorbet

Well, I've never had the pleasure of having a team.

I've been a regional judge, judge advisor, then championship judge, and now Chair of the Waterloo Regional Planning Committee, but have never been associated with any particular team (as probably befits a judge!)

I admire team mentors so much for the effort and hours they put in, and I'm just not sure I could give that much between my job and my family. But I figure that helping to start a new regional and recruiting rookie teams is contribution enough for now!

Rob.

I would say you've had a room full of teams! Thanks for all you do organizing and judging. Although I've never been to your regional, I know how hard it is to organize a regional and pull it off!!

Mike

[RoboMom]

Suddenly, I have about 1000 more people in my life, who are all my team. The learning curve is steep.
For all of you who are "teamless", there are SO MANY opportunities to still be involved. Think about helping with the events: kickoffs, off-season events, regionals, and the Championship. Think about helping with, starting a Lego League team. Since most of my exposure to the world of FIRST has been FRC, I've had a crash course in FIRST Lego League this past month and what fun it is. Tournaments are starting now, and there is need for refs and all sorts of volunteers. I could do a list a mile long.