Against all odds...

[MasterChief 573]

Originally Posted by ForgottenSalad

I have started attending school in a boarding school in northern New Hampshire. My school is a small school, around 100 kids enrolled, and I would like to get a FRC team together to compete in the 2008 season. However, the odds in this are against me, and I would like some input and advice on how to make this happen of if it's even possible to pull off at all. I will list some of the odds against to sort of give an idea.

1. We currently do not have power tools or machines, or even a 'shop'.
2. Finding a mentor. I can't think of a single teacher at our school with the kind of background needed. I could provide much mentorship, but I would need help.
3. Funding. Small school, small endowment. We would have to be entirely sponsored and/or out-of-pocket.
4. Time. During build season we would have short of 2 hours a day on weekdays, 3 if we worked through dinner, with MAYBE one day of the week where we would do FIRST instead of sports and could get 5 hours in. We would have 5 hours Friday 12-16 hours on Saturday and 1 or 2 hours on Sunday. Is it possible to build a robot in this timeframe?
5. People. We would have a small team. It's seen as 'nerdy' so the interest for something like FIRST here is low and I'd be lucky to get 6-10 people.
6. Parental support. Many students board and are not local. It'd be hard to get local support from the parents because of this.

The few things I see going for this is FIRST provides huge scholarship opportunities and I see that as a huge selling point for the program to a boarding school. Also, I've matured a lot in my leadership through FIRST... I think having FIRST at a school is a huge bonus and is a great idea for this reason. All advice, input, etc, about this situation and starting a team is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-Mike Wessler, Former 810 Team Member

In order

1. You don't need a shop to build a robot, our team doesn't have one. We just build it in a class room. However you will need to buy tools and the members might have to find a way to do that.

2. As far as mentors are concerned around half of ours (2 out of 4) are parents of a member. As long as you know someone with engineering knowledge willing to dedicate time you have a mentor.

3. NASA provides sponsorship to all rookie teams in need of money for their first year.

4. I don't know how to address time but I will say this, if you can dedicate 2 to 4 hour every other weekday and 4 to 6 hours on Saturday or Sunday you have plenty of time.

5. You don't need a big team, I would say that 15 people would be bare minimum but if you can get that many your in business.

6. I don't know exactly what you mean by parent support but I would say that if you mean what I think you mean that it doesn't take more than 3 to 5 parents max to do that.