New Team to be (Possibly) Started at Cal Poly Pomona

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by Bill Gold

Please, please be careful if you’re thinking of starting a new team. In California we’ve had problems before with starting new teams and there not being enough funding in a given area to support the veteran and rookie teams in that area. I would actually advise against starting a new team in that area, and suggest an alternative which would be to get new schools involved in an existing team. Then, in a year or two (when you’re absolutely sure there’s enough funding for all teams in the area to survive amicably) you can spin off a rookie team or two (this way the rookies aren’t exactly rookies, and can be more competitive than the typical rookie team, too). I would be very disappointed to see one or more teams in the Cal Poly Pomona area fold due to the introduction of a rookie or more than one rookie team. Please think about this option and the possible effects (local and global in FIRST) of starting a rookie team before you fully commit to starting a one.

-Bill

Cal Poly Pomona is in LA County and part of a major urban area. There are plenty of untapped potential sponsors in the area. If they were talking about Cal Poly SLO, it would be a different story.

For the past three years, the LA Regional committee has focused on keeping the LA Regional alive. Thankfully, due to the hard work of the development committee, we appear to have reached a point where the Regional is sustainable for the long term. So now we can start thinking about actively recruiting schools to join the FIRST family. Next year we are planning to do some substantial recruiting. The area around Pomona could certainly use a new team or two. Bill's points are good ones, but in this case Angela would probably have the blessings of the Regional Committee.

Of course I think she would be welcome supporting the BeachBots too (I know she'd get my vote and probably Joe Ross' as well among others) but the commute between school and our shop would be a killer.