What to say at a new member meeting?

[vivek16]

what should be said and shown at a new member meeting? we have a core group of maybe 3-4 dedicated people who have experienced build and competition and 3-4 newish old members that know a little about FIRST and will help with work. We might be looking at 20-50 new members who do not know anything about FIRST all and will probably be expecting battlebots at the meeting. what should be said,done,shown?

The meeting will be november 20. and we have not done too much recruiting yet. should we have a signup sheet in the lunch room? our school has about 3200 students so there might be a big turnout.

thanks, vivek

[Branden Ghena]

A demonstration of last year's robot is a good start. While things like following a green light and driving on joysticks are not always amazing to returning team members, they are pretty cool to newbies.

And WOW that is a huge school. Mine is about one third the size.

[AndyB]

Get a project planned to keep interest high. Instead of using kitbot frame like last year, you guys could plan a different drive system or expanding your four wheel drive into a six wheel drive.

Take what you learned last year, and pick out the good things, and then try and teach it to them.

For programming, (FIRST SAVE THE CODE SOMEWHERE), you can clear out your controller from last year's bot and have students use EasyC to reprogram it.

Assuming you have different committees, (Electrical, Mechanical, Programming), have the leaders of these committees each come up with something fun to do which teaches these new guys about robotics.

Something that doesn't hurt, if Miss Daisy (Team 341) is still doing it, contact them and see if you can get a copy of Team In a Box.

http://www.team341.com/tiab.html

If you're really up to it, try disassembling last year's bot and help the newbies reassemble it.


As far as what to say though, I would try and show them clips of last year's matches. Whether you were in them or not. You could check The Blue Alliance (thebluealliance.net) and stream some clips if you have a projector.

It's really up to you guys though. I would create some sort of entry form and hand them out at the meeting. Stick some flyers up around the school. Make sure you emphasize the fact that no mechanical or computer skills are required.

[Wayne C.]

welcome- now lets get to work...

[Billfred]

-Lay out any expectations (attendance, grades, behavior, etc.) for the team
-Lay out any requirements for membership (such as fees, travel expenses, etc.)
-Explain the first meeting how to avoid getting killed, maimed, or hurt while working on a robot.

That should cover the first meeting.

[DonRotolo]

Yes, I have to agree with the above:
1. Demonstrate last year's bot
2. Explain that it is NOT battlebots (expect some folks to leave)
3. Explain Gracious Professionalism and how important it is.
4. Set the expectations for participation (see above^^)
5. Explain what jobs there are on the team - mechanical, electrical, website, awards, animation, buttons, T-short design... It's not only the robot, but the zillion things around it as well.

Get contact info - name, address, phone, cell, e-mail, etc. Follow up!

Don

[Blue_Mist]

For those with a relatively small team, we started by standing in the front of the room and each person giving their name, year, years on the team and a few things they liked about Robotics. This makes the team seem much more approachable, and lets the newbies know the team as actual people, rather than aloof veterans. Some of my friends and I are still shy and quiet after all, and would rather be approached than go up to a newbie and ask questions.

The rest of our presentation was a PowerPoint with photos of welding, competitions, and last year's Yearbook Photo (even though they left us out!). We also showed some videos from the robot's point of view. These tend to interest people even if they originally looked for Battlebots.

[AndyB]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

Yes, I have to agree with the above:
2. Explain that it is NOT battlebots (expect some folks to leave)

Yes it is important for people to know that they are committing to, but you should also make sure to point out that other than the weapons, battlebots and FIRST aren't tremendously different.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by AndyB

Yes it is important for people to know that they are committing to, but you should also make sure to point out that other than the weapons, battlebots and FIRST aren't tremendously different.

This just reminded me of something that I had forgotten. We had our Liberal Arts Science Academy (LASA) Showcase this past week for prospective 9th graders for next year. One of the students was over at our demo talking to some of the team members and the dad started asking me questions. He asked if we were like battlebots. As I started to talk a little bit about the team, his son overheard and said, 'DAD, this isn't about battlebots, this is about robotics!' I laughed.

[wendymom]

I find that feeding them always keeps them coming back. seriously.

[danshaffer]

get them started on the stuff they'll be doing: building, programming, animating, etc. you might not keep all of them, but you'll get the ones you want - the ones who will work or want to learn, the ones who can work well with the people who are already on your team, etc.
(of course you have to start with an intro, but i think that's been covered pretty well above)

[Koko Ed]

We had our first meeting last week of the pre season with 14 new kids and 4 new adult mentors. We had everyone stand up and introduce themselves. We explained what we do. Who we are and what is expected of us. We then did team building exercises that helped further along the introduction process then we broke up into our individual sub teams to start on the task the teams had to accomplish for the pre season.
Next week teams will be submitting nominees for this years team theme and most likely with that this year's robot name.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

Get contact info - name, address, phone, cell, e-mail, etc. Follow up!

And parent contact info - we all know students tell their parents everything that is going on in their lives, but sometimes they forget a detail or two.

[Zyik]

Hmm, whenever we have a new student at a meeting it goes something like this.

1. Everyone stands up, says name, grade level, various nicknames, and favorite super hero. I've found that the last bit helps, a lot of our new students come to us very shy, and so a bit of humor in the beginning like that can help them to not feel so intimidated around a large group of people they've never met.
2. General warning about the overzealous safety captain.
3. General overview of what we do.
4. Show off previous robots.
5. Get contact information, parent and student.
6. Continue meeting.

[technoL]

This year we got a pretty big turnout of new members, so we tried to be a little more organized from the start.

-Introduced FIRST and a little background about the team
-Have the subteam leaders introduce themselves and their subteams
-Have the new members introduce themselves and what attracted them to the team (so we could see what recruitment efforts worked)
-Get all of their info (Name, grade, email, phone, student ID, parent contact) and invite all of them to our Google Group
-Explain member expectations and some of our goals for the year
-Show last year's bot and some competition videos
-Q & A

Almost every single new person returned to the team for the next meeting, where we divided into subteams, started with intro and safety, and then got into the real training. For recruitment we brought the robot out to lunch during the 2nd week of school, but most of our members showed up because of hearing from others or our recruitment in the previous year.