Rookie team in the offseason

[neoshaakti]

What are some steps a rookie team should take during the offseason to assure that they are still in existence next season.
The common sense answer would be to raise money, but my question is more directed to the technical training involved in building a robot.
Basically, how should a rookie team train its membership for the next season, and when is a good time to start this so called training?

Thank you

[rdlevy1215]

Obviously raising money is key, but what we do on 1676, and started it our "sophomore season" was a thing called "Pi-Tech Academy," where team members, new and old, are trained for the new season. More info can be found here: http://www.team1676.com/viewpage.php?page_id=28

Hope this helps!

[Akash Rastogi]

We've always run MORT University which is training in each subgroup by students for students (along with some help from the mentors of course). We generally start in October and continue until build starts. One thing you guys could do is visit another team such as ours or anyone who is willing to help for one or a few of these training sessions to get a feel for it. Basically, if you are a young team, you may have only seniors and adults doing most of the teaching, but it depends on who you guys think knows the most and can teach others the best.

There are great learning presentations provided by many teams such as 125 and 1114. Be sure to search on here for white papers about programming and general and mechanical design. Design processes and team structure presentations are also available.

Someone on here who is not working on their history term paper ( ) and has time may be able to post the links to all these or I will try to do it when I'm free. I have everything pretty much bookmarked but I'm kinda busy to do it right now.

Contact me if you need anything else. But first, search 125 and 1114's sites and also please search on here for some great resources.

EDIT: Greg Needel has an awesome presentation about mechanical design. We use it for our training sessions. I'm just going to be adding things on here as I have time so check back every once in a while.

Team 33

[EricH]

If there are any workshops or postseasons near you, attend them. Workshops for the knowledge, postseasons to get newer members into the competition. Time to start? How about now?

[GaryVoshol]

Have 3 or 4 just-for-fun team events during the summer. Does someone have a pool? Any sports events that you'd enjoy attending? Just hang out? Invite potential new members to join you, to get to know the team.

Organize a Parent's Support Club if you don't already have one. If you do, enourage them to meet during the summer so you can hit the ground running when school starts.

In the fall, look for ways you can help with FLL or FTC. Maybe organize your own FTC team with newbie members.

Take part in, or provide help to, an offseason event. If your area has an offseason competition like OCCRA, consider participating.

There's lots to do beside watching the calendar count down to Kickoff.