recruiting advice?

[insub2]

(@admin: if this is in the wrong category, i'm sorry. move it or let me know or something.)

Our team (1227) has been shy on mentors, teachers, and students. Last year, team 904 let us on with them and are doing so again this coming season. however, we are still trying to raise participation by people in our schools.

I'm asking for any advice. Are there any ways that you have successfully promoted your team?

We have gotten permission to do demonstrations at a school event on the 14th. We hoping to make some brochures or fliers or something to pass out. Any ideas on what should be included?

Thank you very much for any help.

-zach. of 1227/904

[Tottanka]

I suggest you bring the robot ro that event.
Having the best moments of rack N roll/Aim high shown there.
letting people from the crowd drive the crowd drive the robot etc.
Anyone who has the potential to become a FIRSTER will surely be excited to see that kind of stuff.
Dont forget to wear your team tshirts, present trophies and medals u may have.
Good luck!

[wendymom]

Make sure you mention the 8 million dollars worth of scholarships.....that should catch someones attention.

[KathieK]

Be sure to actively recruit the students that might not normally be attracted to science, technology, etc. The ones that are great at creative writing or are taking journalism or marketing classes. They can write your brochures, etc. The ones who already are accomplished website people. They can create your website for you. The student that is great at graffiti might turn out some awesome t-shirts if asked. The ones who are thinking about becoming accountants can have some hands-on practice managing the team budget. Demos might not attract these types of students, but word-of-mouth, or recommendations from teachers might help identify them.
Recruiting and retaining mentors ideas can be found here.

[notaPINKtruck]

I can definitely echo KathieK's sentiments. We recruit students from everywhere, including the people you'd expect (computer geeks, gear heads) to drama kids, band...our team members come from all kinds of students, not just the typical image of a "FIRSTie"

Definitely show off your robot at that event. Invite everyone to drive it. Try to match the excitement of a FIRST competition the best you can (i know its impossible...but we like to make everything a party )

[njamietech]

If your school has video announcments like ours does you can make a video and place it on the annoucements.

We are trying that and the results will be proven at our first meeting

however it grabbed alot of peoples attention so the results should be good

[JaneYoung]

418 just completed a week of recruitment. It was student developed and student driven and was wonderful. (the mentors were involved but the students were the ones who made it happen) The student organizers began by posting information on the team yahoogroup regarding planning meetings. In those meetings they laid out the classes they wanted to visit, their presentations, their team leads, and what their objectives were. They then made arrangements with the administration and teachers involved for classroom visits. For 2 days, team members visited different classes and made a brief presentation about the team and the differents aspects of it. They made sure they attended classes in the Liberal Arts section as well as the Science and Technology section of the school.

That same week we also had Back To School Night and the students had an information table as well as a few of their robots on display. They had a sign up sheet for interested students at their table. Many of the students were overheard telling their parents, 'this is the team that came to my class.' Then on that Thursday, after school, they had an orientation meeting for the new recruits. They set up different stations for the students to visit and ask questions about during the orientation. Again, the stations covered the different aspects of the team and competition. It was a very productive week and the students did an excellent job of introducing the team to their fellow students, their teachers, the parents - the school in general. It is the first time we have ever done anything beyond having a table at the Back To School Night. Very exciting and very successful.

On a side note, I think a benefit that occurred naturally was that the team members who like to focus on the robot were able to gain an appreciation and understanding of the other aspects of team/team development by being involved in the planning and by attending the classes, promoting the team. They saw the bigger picture and presented it.

[Athleticgirl389]

102 has had this trouble in the past. We have found it very worthy, as some have mentioned, as bringing the robot to some event. If people see the robot, they will ask questions and you will give answers. I'm sure there is something in your area where you can show the robot to the middle school students as well as the high school students.

Also, working with your school is a MJAOR benefit. We had that problem.. with the school not working with us. But, we started to include the board of education in the weekly activities, invited them to the shop and all that and we were able to get a few times during the year to show the robot to the high school students.

Even getting the robot in some sort of parade would be awesome - MANY people will see it then.

These are just a few things 102 has done when we had difficulties getting members, and I must say, that it was really paid off because in 4 years, we have gone from a team in the mid teens (number wise) to a team around 40 this year.

[njamietech]

Originally Posted by njamietech

If your school has video announcments like ours does you can make a video and place it on the annoucements.

We are trying that and the results will be proven at our first meeting

however it grabbed alot of peoples attention so the results should be good

Ok,

This is a little late but oh well.

We just had our first meeting last friday (september 14th) and because of the video we had a full classroom of new members. We have never had a full classroom of new members.

So in my opinion the video was very succesful

[KathieK]

The new white paper, "Recruiting New Students to Your FIRST Robotics Competition or FIRST Tech Challenge Team", has been published to the NEMO website resources section, www.firstnemo.org/resources.htm

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

In those meetings they laid out the classes they wanted to visit, their presentations, their team leads, and what their objectives were. They then made arrangements with the administration and teachers involved for classroom visits. For 2 days, team members visited different classes and made a brief presentation about the team and the differents aspects of it. They made sure they attended classes in the Liberal Arts section as well as the Science and Technology section of the school.

I like this idea alot. We've already completed our recruitment for the year, and though I'm not sure what was done at the school for it other than flyers/posters we have a fantastic turnout of freshmen/sophomores for FTC. I'll see if I can convince the Team Lead to consider this for next year.

[kazzykaty]

Originally Posted by insub2

(@admin: if this is in the wrong category, i'm sorry. move it or let me know or something.)

Our team (1227) has been shy on mentors, teachers, and students. Last year, team 904 let us on with them and are doing so again this coming season. however, we are still trying to raise participation by people in our schools.

I'm asking for any advice. Are there any ways that you have successfully promoted your team?

We have gotten permission to do demonstrations at a school event on the 14th. We hoping to make some brochures or fliers or something to pass out. Any ideas on what should be included?

Thank you very much for any help.

-zach. of 1227/904

If you are looking to recruit new people for your team from a highschool or technical school, the best way would be to put up a little table presentation during all of the lunches. Make it something interesting though. Most highschool kids think robotics is dorky but show them that it's alot of fun. Make something fun out of your presentations. First Impressions are key. Saying something funny or having a fun project to include people in is a fun way to tell people about your team. Have a robot drawing contest or something. Ask kids to draw their best picture of a robot on a giant poster board and when they're done, hand them some info about your team. At the end, have your team vote on the best robot and give that person a prize of some sort. Then take the poster / posters made and hang them up around the school with information about a fun informational meeting with snacks. People listen better when there is food involved.

[kmcclary]

Originally Posted by kazzykaty

If you are looking to recruit new people for your team from a highschool or technical school, the best way would be to put up a little table presentation during all of the lunches. [...] People listen better when there is food involved.

I totally agree.

Whenever I've started a new FRC team (or helped established ones recruit), one of our big events is to create a buzz about a program we call "Robots At Lunch", with posters, announcements, etc. The poster will have a big splash with the title, and an image of at least one awesome FRC bot that will be appearing.

At lunch, have a space for running the robot around. If it is possible to set it up so that others can SAFELY operate your robot in a small area (possibly by temporarily slowing down all drivetrain and payload maximum speeds in software, or making sure you have a DISABLE dongle box attached and a team member's hand on the switch), give new students a chance to take the controls for a few minutes. You won't believe how well actually getting the chance to DRIVE one of our bots works to whet their appetite for robotics.

Newly formed teams (that won't have their own FRC bot yet) should invite another nearby team to bring their current robot in for both lunch, and to tour the Science wing classes, to drum up interest. Many teams' school will gladly excuse a drive team pair of students for one day to help establish another school's team.

On the same day as "Robots At Lunch", you also pre-arrange with each of the science wing teachers to show off the robot for 10-15 minutes to their class, and work up a schedule. Along with the robot, bring in a 2-5 minute video and a LCD projector, (or a tape if their classrooms are already set up for this), so that you can show some contest (and build season) highlights. If you don't have any footage, borrow some from other teams. FIRST also has promo tapes for this purpose too, so contact HQ to get a copy, and edit up something from that source material.

Don't forget that a HUGE opportunity is to recruit at your highest JUNIOR HIGH grade as well, to create buzz with the incoming students! Sometime BEFORE they select their fall classes in their new HS, run the above demo through the JHS science wing (and/or lunch room), and take names! This helps bootstrap your recruiting -before- they walk in the door, and get hit by all of the sports teams and OTHER clubs. The JHS demo set typically occurs at most of my teams somewhere in the April/May timeframe. This timing works out well, because it means you take your -current- competition robot around, right after the competition cycle.

(Yes, this doesn't help right NOW as it is September, but be sure to add this to your annual calendar as a TODO for later this season, to help start building NEXT year's team.)

Please let me know if this helps.

- Keith