Expanding a Robotics team

[xitaqua]

Hello,

I co-lead a team of professionals that had build a "demo robot" using the same kit as of 2008 Competition. Our robot is called the Croc-Bot and we take to schools and community events to bring awareness of robotics to the youth.

The team has 30 folks - participation is around 65%. This is the first time we have done this, and we plan to start a "new team" this July and hopefully participation will improve. Those that participated by attending a certain number of meetings, giving a certain amount of time to the project performed a valuable task to the team got a "certificate". But those that did not get a certificate are still considered a valuable part of the team, they just have not had an opportunity to participate.

I also mentor a FIRST FRC Robotics Rookie team, and I would say we have around 10 kids participating out of 17, giving us roughly same percentage of participation.

The key is to understand who is participating, and make it visible - so you know where you are and also can set a goal of where do you want to be.

My recommendation is try to get 30 individuals and begin tracking it.

On both the demo team and the rookie team we had posted on the wall the names of the team members and scheduled meeting dates of the team, and as team members come to attend they put a "check" on the day they have attended.

[mfoyil]

My school has a roboctics class. It really helps to attract new people. We have around 25 people in it

[-=Pz=-]

My school is taking part in FRC for the first time and we are facing the same difficulty. we had about 30 people sign up only about 10 are serious and working their best.

[rsegrest]

I am the sponsor/coach for our team and I think you may be looking in the wrong direction. I teach Introduction to Computers, Computer Maintenance, and Networking (which falls under the Career and Technology department).

We do not recruit from "specific" groups or classes we have an open door policy for everyone on campus. I have had students who can work cal2 and phys2 equations all day long that have never picked up a screwdriver and at the same time I have had students who couldn't tell you what a phys equation was but if you handed them a part they could have it assembled and working in less than 30 minutes and be able to tell you if it could pick up a 7.5lb, 40in diameter ball.

What's really cool is that these guys end up teaching each other their skills and it makes us a MUCH stronger team (stronger as getting through the tough times). The teachers that you would "expect" to be involved in this aren't (we can go ask a questions but they don't show up for meetings etc.) and we are having fun figuring out the answers to our questions on our own and being successful!

My advice to you...if you have a career and technology department at your school go talk to them if you haven't already! They LOVE to get their hands on stuff like this (I sometimes have trouble keeping my fellow CTE teachers from trying to build it for the team!) The welding instructor is checking in with me at LEAST once a week to see if we need any help or if there's anything they can weld for us yet.

Remeber, talent can be found in VERY unexpected places! Check out this link if you don't believe me

http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/bell.asp

Most of all, keep your heads up and keep fighting for your team...it will be worth it in the end!

Good luck at competition!

[Shelbo]

If your problem is getting people/students interested then...try demos, flyers, and other sorts of promotion. If your problem is the type of people try advertising outside of your school. Our team is made out of 6 different high schools (however our team is still reletively small) and in the past we have had homeschool students join our team. So try getting the word out into the county/community...

[smurfgirl]

Originally Posted by t41w4ne5ef0b

Expanding including other robotics team might not be feasible cuz nearby schools all have their own teams. Lamar HS has one, Westside has one, Booker T has one. I might try fliers but I dont know if our school will permit it...apparently we're under some fire right now cuz our "president" had the box with controllers and electronics shipped to school and it was put under his name for some reason, and we had to go to the principal to get it....We werent even considered an official club our first year....

anyways I just hope that my team has a future...cuz it looks really grim right now...

So couldn't your school partner with one of those teams? Students from your school could join one of those teams since they are already successful in running a team. I'm sure they would welcome you. This way, there would still be enough interested students.

For now, why not try to recruit members to your current team at your own high school, before giving up hope that you can maintain your team through until next season. Get rid of the negative outlook that it's too late and your school hates you- a positive attitude will work wonders. Maybe it will take a bit more effort to recruit students to join later in the academic year, because of lack of "club jamboree" or anything else. Advertise around the school. Put something in the school newspaper. Wear your shirts around school and tell people about the team. Invite people to come watch you play at your regional (if you are within reasonable driving distance). Perhaps work with the school to arrange sending a bus of spectators like many schools do for their sports teams. Advertise to younger students too- you will open their eyes to the wonders of science and technology as well as gain recruits for future seasons. Why not bring your robot to your local middle school(s), or find out if you can demo it in science classes at your school one day? You can work on this later in the season, when you do have a completed robot and the stress of competition is over. Get one thing done at a time, don't overwhelm yourself. Every team experiences some "bad luck", and it's up to each team to make the best of it and work their way through it, no matter how frustrating it is.

[katyrobo2177]

I recommend getting the idea of being on the team as a positive thing. Coming from last year and graduating 13 seniors and left with 3 returning underclassmen, I know it's hard to recruit people to the team. You just have to keep positive and let people know at your school how fun it is. Yes, it involves a big commitment, but in the end, you walk away with great life experiences and new friends. One way to get your attendance rate up which always works for our all girls team is say there will be food lol and that it will help with lettering if your team does that. It's just a suggestion. Otherwise you should have a mentor address the subject and say either you come and are on the team otherwise you aren't. Our team is proud of our high attendance rates and it is all due to people just loving to be there with their friends. You could always try recruiting your friends to try it out, or like we did this summer where we had all the potenially interested people show up to weekly meetings and learn about the mechanical, pr, electrical, and programming sides of our team. Hope this helps some!

[Enigma's puzzle]

taking your previous year robots to junior highs is an excellent way to spark enthusiasm it will also get you kids that will join and be devoted for 4 years, which gives you more of a knowledge base to start each year. and if you can get more people than you will seem like a more legitimate club, making other people stick around. aiming for younger kids to join robotics makes the club look fuller because of thier longer tenure, and alows knowledge to buildup to help gain a larger benefit

[Bongle]

If your school is really made up of academic-oriented kids, take a cynical approach and think about what those kids want. They want things they can put on their university applications, and they want scholarships. FIRST allows for both of those things, so advertise that.

[115inventorsam]

It is hard to support a robotics team in this kind of environment without solid support. How do I know? Our school is extremely competitive as well, and I can somewhat relate to your situation. First thing is having a dedicated teacher mentor. Our teacher mentor is the person who really keeps this team up and running. Without him I don't know what we would do. Also, our team makes itself widely known in the school with flyers, advertising on the school announcements(be creative!), and recruiting on our Club Promo Day.

Also, do not hesitate to ask help from other teams, a lot of teams go through tough times, and other teams should be willing to help out. We propped up another school's team last year when they were on the verge of collapse, and now they are doing fine on their own.

[AlbertW90]

I understand what your team is going through, as our team(988) has been facing similar problems. With a lack of school support(we can't even get a wide space of carpet to practice on.) it becomes hard to get past the 6000$ entry fee each year, which makes it hard to expand your team. Another problem we have run into, is finding enough tasks for ten or fifteen members to all work on at a time. Teenagers are lazy, and feel tired after school, and its hard to get people to work all of the time, without being a complete jerk. Getting frustrated isn't the answer, as it will only discourage members from staying. However, our team has begun to grow, rather than shrink, due to an influx of sophomores, and a few freshmen. If you can't recruit freshmen, get a few sophomores on your team to invite thier friends, the FRC competition is something that will often grab students who have a chance to see what you are doing.

[XD_bring_it]

I understand what you mean. We have about 120+ members and roughly 30 show up a day. Unfortunately we aren't allowed to hand out flyers in our school. Not even have the morning anouncements include information about meetings have helped. I think that there are people who sign up just to claim being part on the team even if they never show up and put it in their resume for college. Anyway, I feel for you as we are experiencing the same thing.