Keeping Interest - Beyond the Robot

[artdutra04]

During the competition season, your team should be focused on winning. But during the off-season, your team should be focused on not only working to become better for the next season, but also working on spreading FIRST and giving back to the community.

In the summer months, emphasize the generosity your school(s) and sponsors have to fund your team, by deciding to give back to the community. It doesn't necessarily have to be about spreading FIRST or inspiring your community about engineering (although bonus points if it does include that), but even something as simple as building birdhouses out of recycled shipping crates, and donating them to a local park can build a positive image of your team within the community.

And while the benefits of doing such activities may not be immediately tangible, activities such as this contribute to the long-term success of your team. When the community (and other civic/service organizations like the Lions or Kiwanis) sees that your team is having a positive effect on your community, then they'll be more likely to help your team out in return. (It also makes it harder and harder for schools/companies that don't quite "get" FIRST yet to continue to ignore a FIRST team.)

Originally Posted by 4throck

Sorry my man, but 1418 doesn't have the money or the resources to start a FVC or FLL team. We get middle schoolers involved in our FRC team, we have several members from the middle school next door.

You don't need a lot of resources or money to get FLL or FVC teams started! In fact you can run one of those teams with a single teacher and about $500 or $1000 annually, respectively. Our FRC team usually makes at least that much from a single car wash or pasta dinner fundraiser, which usually only takes (at most) four or five hours or work, plus planning time.