Is the Gainesville, FL team still around?

[buss]

I was a member of SPAM for three years, and a mentor on SPAM last year. I'm not looking forward to doing the drive from Gainesville to Stuart again this year and I wanted to be a mentor with the Gainesville team. The only problem is that I can't find the team's website, or any information about it. Does this team still exist? And more importantly, who do I contact about being a mentor?

Also note: I've got a couple friends who are looking to be mentors as well.

[sanddrag]

maybe this will help:
http://www.firstwiki.org/index.php/459
http://www.usfirst.org/frc/map/index...minfo&team=459
http://www.ehs.sbac.edu/club_sites/r...s/default.aspx
http://www.ehs.sbac.edu/default.html

[Dan Richardson]

If it doesn't work out and you want to mentor you can either start your own team, or there are plenty of teams in Orlando area so you don't have to drive all the way down to Stuart.

Orlando to Gainsville is only about an hour, and I'm sure there are plenty of teams that would like the help.

[Specialagentjim]

The man to talk to about that would be a Basharat Choudhry question actually. He's working on organizing the effort to Mentor the gainesville team and he's doing an awesome job. He's working to coordinate efforts with the high school as well as the shop on campus, along with getting together all the old 108, 180, and ramtech guys. Find him, or me, on facebook and shoot us a messege and we'll let you know more when it comes time!

[JohnBoucher]

Track these guys down. They might be able to help.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14282876/

[paldrid]

I realize that this thread it quite old but I just stumbled across it. Hopefully, people are still interested in working on getting a team back together in Gainesville.

459 (the Gainesville team) has had serious trouble getting the resources and support we needed for several years. We fell apart in 2005, managed to scrape together a team in 2006 and then the majority of the team graduated. Most of the 459 alumni are still interested in getting the team back together, but we are seriously lacking in leadership. We actually had a meeting in December about trying to, at the very least, get a VEX team together, but that fell apart quite rapidly.

If anyone is interested in getting 459 back together (or even form a completely new team), send me a note.

[Specialagentjim]

I'm in! I was actually going to start writing sponsorship request letters this week to see if I could raise some interest from some local companies.

[Jared W]

I'll be a freshman at UF next year..and i'd be glad to help. I have 1 year of Vex experience and 1 year of Frc experience.

I was the self elected team captain (lol) on S.P.A.M.'s first Vex team #3228, which was an alliance winner at the Florida Regional and a semi-finalist at the championship in Altanta. And I was on S.P.A.M.'s FRC team, i designed the releasing mechanism for our amazing ramps .

Someone can send me a message for more infomation later.

Thank you,

Jared W

[Dan Richardson]

Originally Posted by Specialagentjim

I'm in! I was actually going to start writing sponsorship request letters this week to see if I could raise some interest from some local companies.

Don't miss this opportunity, Jim is an amazing asset to have, and a great guy all around. He was only able to help team for about a week and part of 2 competitions, and somehow still managed to play an integral part.

He works well with students and knows his stuff.

I only wished he lived a bit closer so he could help out 1902 and the surrounding Orlando teams more often.

[paldrid]

I am amazed by the interest that has been expressed in getting a team together. I am currently going to school in Jacksonville (although I don't know if I'm going back in the fall...), so I probably will not be able to help out as much as I would like. However, if someone heads up the effort to make a team I will assist in anyway possible.

My advice to whoever heads this up: get some students interested before seeking funding. From my experience, Gainesville is the type of town where it is very easy to get funding if you know the right people, but almost impossible otherwise. We were really really short on money in 2006 until a parent sent out two emails and doubled the amount of funding we had.

[Triple B]

anyone have pics of theyre 03 robot?
thanks,
mike d

[evanisthat!]

I will be attending UF next year and look forward to joining this venture with Jim. He can make teams run (ex. 108 in '05). Alas, if all works out, look out for this team next year...

[Andrew Rudolph]

If you can get a hold of mr. horter's email or somthing like that he would be a good person to talk to he is a really great guy and was the backbone of that team, if he is still around gville, I think thier main problem was lack of help and money really.

[paldrid]

Mr. Horter sadly got really burned out after being the only mentor for the past couple years. While I'm sure he would be interested in helping out when possible, I wouldn't count on him for too much. If anyone would like to get in touch with him, contact me and I'll give you his email address.