Getting help from your principal and local school district

[Carl Gao]

My team is trying to get a facility for working on robots. If you could give us any pointers on how to approach the people in charge, please reply. Thanks!

[R.C.]

Put together a presentation of what the program is all about and how it affects the students along with the community. Pictures and videos help.

[comphappy]

Talk to the shop teacher/ tech ed coordinator. Then leave the rest of the admin out of it, that is what we did and it was better for everyone.

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by comphappy

Talk to the shop teacher/ tech ed coordinator. Then leave the rest of the admin out of it, that is what we did and it was better for everyone.

That is another option and probably the best one.

[JohnBoucher]

Leaving admin out of the discussion can backfire on you. It is better to get everyone's support. There are liability, contractual and other issues that will come into play the cannot be addressed at the teacher level.

See if the teacher responsible for the area is willing to let you use the area. Once that is done, then go all the way to the top and secure their support. That way support will trickle down.

Become everyone's friend, from the Board of Ed to the janitors. Unless you are part of the curriculum or funded in someway by their budget, you are an outsider. They have no stake in your program.

Put together an informational packet, emphasis on the scholarships. Do some community service with no strings attached. When doing fundraisers, make certain that the admin, faculty and support staff are all approached.

You need to be an asset to their system. If you are, then it's easier to get what you need.

[Roger]

Become everyone's friend, from the Board of Ed to the janitors.

Especially the janitors. If you are in the school building they are the ones with the keys.

In addition to rc_cola1323's and JohnBoucher's advice, look for places to put your facility. Is there a spare room available? A building on campus not being used? During the fall a classroom may do, but once build season is on you are going to be building for long hours and "putting away your toys before bedtime" isn't going to be good. Always find an answer to your request, or multiple answers. It shows you've been researching and it doesn't put them on the hook for doing work. (Also known as "saving face".)

When you go asking, first build them up (what is FIRST all about, why is it good, etc), then here's the problem (we need space, money, time, teachers, etc), finally give them a solution that makes everyone feel good. (We found an ideal space thats been storing old gym equipment, can it be moved to here/given to the elementary schools/gotten rid of/etc? It hasn't been used since my parents went to school here.) Be creative, be polite, be positive. Remember there is only a limited amount of space to go around.

[Allison]

From my experience:

The team I mentored as a college student had a lot of issues getting a space to work. The ideal place for any team would be their own shop with machines and everything so they don't have to pack up each night. While this isn't possible for all teams I know many use the high school machine shop which can present its own set of challenges.

First thing you need to do is identify your teams unique needs. Will you need access to the school machine shop? Are you even allowed to access the shop? What will you do for tools (even if you have access to the machines many shop teachers do not like others using their tools)...etc. Will you need access to school computers, if not are outside computers allow in the building? Although these may seem like very basic questions that are very important before starting your search. (I am sure I can think of more questions if you need help coming up with them)

The team I mentored as a college student was not allow access to the schools machine shop the teams first or second year competing so different solutions had to be arranged each year. The team's first year competing our high school teacher at the time approached the principal to get us space after the the shop teachers said no. The solution although not the most ideal worked...we ended up building in a second floor converted copy room in the school. We purchased a small bandsaw and table top drill press for that season.

The next year was a bit more complex without a teacher our team was forced to find a different solution. Which involved finding a different facility out in the community that was willing to be home for the team for that year. I would suggest avoiding going this route if possible since we had to deal with insurance and ever thing else for this year since the school insurance didn't cover us. We ended up sharing a high school shop with another FRC team for that year.

The teams third year due to some changes on the school board and the teams positive presence in the school they were given access to the school shop and computer labs. Moral of the story if you don't succeed find a temporary solution and try try again.

The principal is probably one of the first people to approach once you have a plan in place for exactly what you team needs. I do not suggest trying to leave other admin out of it because you can show up one day to find a sign on the computer lab saying your meeting is canceled due to the fact after school activities can not use computer labs. Also come up with a list of questions about using the facility like does a employee of the school have to be there at all times or can another adult fill that role. The most important thing is to go in having done your homework like knowing there is an empty closet somewhere in the building you can use for storage. Also if you haven't already recruit the shop teacher he can be a big asset.


That is all I can think of for now. If you need more help/ideas just ask.

Good luck with your search.

~Allison

[ttldomination]

, My best choice is that people response to visual stimulation. If they see a cool robot running around and doing things, then they'll likely get interested.

Invite students, principal, teachers, people in charge to a demo. There, show them videos, offer explanations, and most important of all, show what your team actually does(The robot).

[ComradeNikolai]

We didn't have the problem approaching the administration to start a team or get initial funding since our programming teacher asked us if we wanted to do it, we said yes, and magically the team was started!

Along with what has been said, however, talking to administration can be helpful. We did a presentation for our school board about what FIRST is, how it works, etc, and they were very impressed (we had two debater do it, so it was well rehearsed) and we hope they'll try to integrate us into their budget the next time it can be changed. Additionally, we ran a booth at open-house and talked to our principal and he took one of our sign up forms to hang in his office because "it looked really cool" -- a good sign that we'll have support from him.

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Carl Gao

My team is trying to get a facility for working on robots. If you could give us any pointers on how to approach the people in charge, please reply. Thanks!

The best leverage we have been able to provide for local Hawaii teams is to have them and their admin visit us on site and explain the benefits of what we currently have.
Try and check with other veteran teams in your area. Maybe they will allow you to see what they have.

[Miner]

Many people have probably said this before... But plan to talk to the admin at a school board meeting. Once you have the school board you have everyone. They will talk to everyone and sort it out for you.

Our team brought in a robot to one of the meetings and now we have our high school principal helping us in keeping the team together. They are really helping a lot!

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Roger

Especially the janitors. If you are in the school building they are the ones with the keys.

Hehe, I just had to add this tidbit in here...a small passage from team 2554's website:

"Edison Township Maintenance and Custodial Union

Since our program is centered within our school, it was not long before faculty took interest in our work. Especially impressed were the custodians, many of whom had shifts during our building hours. They realized our efforts and gave us their utmost cooperation. Our team was further surprised by their generosity when we received a check from them – a gift that we hadn’t even asked for. These acts of kindness went a long way and to Team 2554 the Custodial Union is not only a sponsor, but a true friend. "

Make friends with everyone and don't leave admin out. Approach people as I do, with an old Hindu ideal, and ask them for help without expecting anything out of them and not expecting not to get anything out of them. Be indifferent and don't be unctuous.