I'd like to start an FRC team at my school

[quinxorin]

When it comes to money, if you don't want to have to rely on your school, you need corporate sponsorship. Due to the minimum $6500 for rookie teams, a lot of it.

As for the team organization, I reccomend inclusive. My own team (862) lets everyone in, regardless of grades, dedication, etc. We have over 60 members, not including mentors, but it is also a school of 6500 students. We do, however, have a complex leadership structure.

Personally, if you wish to keep the FTC teams, then you should go with MarkoRamius1086's idea. I, however, would simply quit the FTC teams and go only with the FRC team.

And FRC is ALWAYS trying to build a robot in a few weeks... 6 weeks 3 days, to be exact. Starting the team at the beginning of the school year should not be a major hinderance.

[MarkoRamius1086]

Good points with the money. If you are very tight in green stuff you may want to just drop the FTC teams and stick with Quinxorin's idea of keeping seperate meetings aside of the general team meetings for the more dedicated and serious members.

[EricH]

If you would like to do a fairly low-risk investigation, find some spare kit parts (frame, transmissions, motors, that sort of thing), build a robot that is in compliance with the FRC rules, and bring it to an offseason event. Most, if not all, of them offer a steeply reduced price to pre-rookie teams; in some cases, it's a 100% discount. Veteran teams will also often loan a pre-rookie a robot to compete with.

Doing this can give you an idea of what you're getting into without all of the stress/financial hit of a full FRC season, which is what many rookies wind up with...