School Board Meeting

[coastertux]

My team has finally gotten a block of time to make a presentation for our school board. Any suggestions as to what to say/do? We are only guaranteed 15 minutes but if they like the presentation, they don't mind if it goes over. We are planning on demonstrating our robot and explaining the impact of FIRST on the school and community. Our goal is to get them to give us some monetary support...currently they only pay for transportation to one regional and subs for the teachers.

[Greg Marra]

Make sure your presentation isn't just "Here's our robot".

Explain what goes into the team. Show them how organized you are, how much community involvement you have, how much impact you have in your school system. Give examples of skills students learn that they wouldn't be able to in the regular curriculum. Show them why your robotics team is worthy of their dollars.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

The Board of Education is there to ensure one thing for the town: Education! So, show them how rewarding FIRST really is. Tell them about the 8 million plus dollars in scholarships that FIRST gives out a year. Tell them about how many students have graduated from your team (and other teams) have gone onto higher education. I'm willing to bet the national average is about 90%. For example, in its nine year history, my team has had 99.2% of its high school students go on to college. No other activity even comes close to hitting those kind of numbers.

And when you are done with that, show them the robot.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by coastertux

My team has finally gotten a block of time to make a presentation for our school board. Any suggestions as to what to say/do? We are only guaranteed 15 minutes but if they like the presentation, they don't mind if it goes over. We are planning on demonstrating our robot and explaining the impact of FIRST on the school and community. Our goal is to get them to give us some monetary support...currently they only pay for transportation to one regional and subs for the teachers.

Explain that FIRST is more than just the robot.
Tell them about teamwork. Gracious professionalism. The scholarships. The many different students and mentors from all over the world you'll meet and even the fun you are having. Pictures and video helps as well.

[Beth Sweet]

Have you won any awards either from FIRST or peer awards? People like those shiny things. Have your team members wear their medals. Have a few of your students talk about why they spend night and day working on and thinking about robots for 6 straight weeks. Stories about waking up in the middle of the night with great ideas for a design, Chairman's "word-spreading" technique or animation scene would also help.

Just have the kids tell the board why in the world they're doing this. Make sure to mention the details about the cost and partnerships between the school and companies, but mostly, let the kids speak for themselves. There's a reason they go through this for 6 intensive weeks every year. Let them tell their stories.

[The Lucas]

It helps if you can bring in any team alumni in college and say how the FIRST experience helped them get in/choose a major/understand classes.

[aceofclubs]

show them that you have learned something from first and that you have taken it to heart. Show them that you learned and you made friends and had fun doing it. That is what they want to hear.

[Steve W]

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/1581

This is a white paper that is excellent and from a teachers point of view. Hope it helps and good luck.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by coastertux

My team has finally gotten a block of time to make a presentation for our school board. Any suggestions as to what to say/do? We are only guaranteed 15 minutes but if they like the presentation, they don't mind if it goes over. We are planning on demonstrating our robot. Our goal is to get them to give us more money...currently they only pay for transportation to one regional and subs for the teachers.

First of all, kudos to your school board, that is a lot. Be sure and thank them for that.
- How you impact your school/student population
- Briefly state your short term and long term goals for the team.
- Your business plan or the beginning of a formation of a business plan, showing that you are developing and take the business end of things seriously, listing a few team fundraisers
- any community involvement that you've had this year and and plan to have in the future.
A couple of the team members could briefly state how the team/F.I.R.S.T. has affected their lives and choices.
Dress: we've begun using polos for team presentations with black slacks. Since your goal is support/money present a unified front, tees for sure.
You guys will do great!
Also,there's information here in CD for this type of team development.
Jane

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

Just a minor presentational comment:

I'm sure this applies to many things, but something I've learned in presenting to judges and groups of all sorts is that it's really important to get their attention in a way that they'll be hooked in an instant. Start with a summary of everything you're going to say, don't just start talking about item 1. Give them a direction so that when you're speaking about the robot, they can connect it back to something.

[RoboMom]

Stress the different skills needed to navigate through FIRST. Time management, team work, math, writing, business plans, as well as the robot building. Be sure to emphasize that FIRST gave away $8 million in college scholarships last year. Put together a handout about FIRST and your team if you don't already have one. Ask Rich Kressly, your Senior Mentor for more advice. He can tell you the support that is given in your area.
Figure out what you would like to ask them for. Do the homework ahead of time. Be specific. Be passionate.
Congratulations on this big step. It's an important one.

[Rohan_DHS]

Also keep in mind the obvious things like:
keep eye contact with the people;
speak clearly;
be professional lol

[Billfred]

Oh, and another tip should you use a PowerPoint: Keep everything so fresh and so clean clean. Just as a five-motor, overly-complex arm will fail miserably on the field, too many good presentations have gone in the toilet because of painful abuses of the software.

By the way, I found this article the other day--it might be of use to you:

How to Wow 'Em Like Steve Jobs
(Good luck in developing your Reality Distortion Field. )

[Rich Kressly]

This is great news!! Let me say that the Downingtown Area School District is one that really "gets it." I visited with several folks from the district during the Philadelphia Regional including a school board president and principal (I wont list names here because I don't have their permission).

I've already sent them digital copies of how FIRST aligns with PA State Standards and they have the basic literature. Here's my quick suggestion for your short time with the school board. Celebrate!! Take the robot, the medals and trophies if you have them, a VERY short video perhaps. Make certificates of appreciation for your superintendent and every board member, present them in public and say, "Thanks for the support." Then go on and tell everyone how unique and worthwhile the learning experience is!

That public display will lead to much easier work for your team the rest of the year when the time comes to ask for more money, teachers, support, understanding, approvals, starting FLL teams, etc. Give all the credit to the decision makers and you'll get more next year than you had this year.

...and if you want a local representative from FIRST to join in the fun, all you need to do is invite him (schedule permitting).

[Robocat1]

We present to our Board almost every year (even though they give us no money for transportation or supplies - even though robotics is an elective course), but our subs are paid for, now; we paid for our own subs for awhile! We advisors even paid for our own airfare at one time! And, our Superintendent founded the team and is our biggest volunteer mentor!
That just shows how bad school funding is in Ohio! (enough of this rant ... )

The only thing I can add/emphasize from the other posts is let your team members do ALL of the talking. Nothing impresses adults more than enthusiastic teens.