Looking to Start an FRC Team

[Katie Reynolds]

Kevin,

First of all kudos to you for even thinking about starting a team! I spent 4 years in high school, participating, and 2 years in college - so far - mentoring and it's been a fantastic experience the whole way through! ChiefDelphi is a great resource - glad to see you're here!

1a. Do you think it is possible for a HS Junior to be the driving force behind a team starting?

I think a high school junior can be a driving force behind a new team, but cannot be the driving force. You will need support from the school - usually in the form of teachers to run the program, students to participate, a place to work, and hopefully monetary support - and community as well.

1b. Adult leadership seems to be much more of a factor in FRC than it is in FLL, how important is it to have parents that are willing to be heavily involved?

My team now (#857) is kind of unique, in that it is run entirely by college students from Michigan Tech and one high school teacher. Our HSers parents will cook a meal or two during the build, and we have one who travels with us to competitions but that's about it. Because of this, we do FIRST, a little community service, and some team building.

My high school team (#93) has a fantastic parent organization! If you've ever seen Team #93 do lunch at a competition, that's all organized by the team parents. Their parents are much more active on the team, and it shows a lot.

Bottom line: No, you don't *need* parents who are heavily involved, but it's great if you can have them. (Right now, we're trying to figure out how to get ours more involved!)

1c. Are the Adult leaders usually parents or are they usually mentors/engineers from the community?

Again, Team #857 is run completely by college students and one high school teacher. 7 or our 11 college mentors are former FIRST participants, though, and have seen how the program works - many have 4-6 years under their belts, so far. Nifty fact - the 7 mentors come from 4 different FIRST teams (#33, #93, #111, #818) and have a total of 50+ years of FIRST experience!

Most teams are run by both teachers from the high school and mentors (engineers or otherwise) from the community.

2. What type of equipment do we need to have to build the robot? Do most teams use the machine shops of sponsoring corporations or schools?

Most teams do use machine shops in some way, yes. But it isn't necessary to have one. I wouls say the 'staple' tools are:

• allen wrenches
• nut drivers
• screwdrivers (both philips and flathead in various sizes)
• a hammer
• files (various types and sizes)
• a drill
• a hacksaw

Other tools that are nice to have are:

• a sawzall
• a dremel
• a drill press
• a lathe
• a mill

... the list goes on.

3. What kinds of places do your teams use to set up the playing field? How much room is required for storage of the robot, parts, and playing field elements?

We're actually looking for a space to work right now. The requirements are 1000 square feet of workspace and heated. Currently, we work in an garage about that size, at one of the school district's building (but we're being kicked out because they want to run an auto class in there). During the build, we had half a playing field set up in our workspace and it didn't take up too much room.