Recruiting?

[Karibou]

The Gearheads are going to be having the same problem - once this year's junior class graduates next year, we'll be losing a lot of experience, dedication, and leadership. We had a huge rookie growth and retention number this year, and next year is going to focus on us seniors teaching as much as we can before we graduate. This also happened to us last year - we lost about half of our team to graduation, along with several valuable mentors to their families. A lot of veterans (myself included) had to step up to the plate. The process began at the beginning of the 09 build season, when we realized just how much of our team we were going to lose. Be sure to make your newer members aware of how much stepping up they will have to do once your class is gone.

We start out the recruitment year by sitting at tables during all 4 registration days (one for each graduating class) at both of our contributing high schools. The table generally has a team banner/tablecloth draped over it, a trophy or two, lots of pins sitting on the surface for taking, a retired robot if there's room, a sign-up sheet, and two or three enthusiastic team members sitting behind it. We sit at the tables and call out to the students passing by, and answering questions about the team. We usually get 30 or so names on the sign-up sheets.

With those names, the captains send out an email inviting students AND parents to a presentation at the school, which is run by the student leaders. The presentation is basically a run-down of what FIRST is, the basic structure of our team, the opportunities available on the team, benefits, costs, and a loose schedule for the year with important dates (i.e. "team meetings are on Thursdays," "Kickoff is this weekend," "build season starts and ends on these dates," "competitions are in March"). Students who are still interested enter their contact information into our team roster. After that, they are expected to begin attending team meetings and work sessions (which start with basic safety training, machining, off-season projects, etc). By early November, we have a pretty good idea of who is interested and staying and who has dropped.

Originally Posted by gorrilla

W are going to make a commercial, what kind of stuff should we put in it?

Who your team is, what you do, what opportunities are available on the team, why viewers should join, and pictures of all the fun things you do [:

[alicen]

We've got the same problem. We have maybe five "ACTIVE" members on a 15-20 person team. Of the active members, two of us are active (including myself). That leaves three people that might be active next year. This is a problem, because this year i did all of the CAD work and the majority of the build, next year, they have nobody to do that at the moment.
i'm actually really worried about what's going to happen to the team..

[Bethie42]

Does anyone know if FIRST has any promotional videos on their website? I looked, but couldn't find any (tend to have trouble finding stuff on the website anyways )

Our team is based at a small school...this year (our best season in a while) we had a grand total of 8 students who stayed all the way through to regionals.

We've got the usual graduating-genius problem....the only returning students next year are two programmers/hardware people, and me (PR, communications, publicity, scouting, organization, Chairman's team-of-one, and wrench-turning).

I'm probably going to film a promotional video for the incoming freshman class (our school has middle school and HS combined...small private school)...but it would be nice if FIRST had something ready made, that really shows what FIRST is all about...enthused students...all that sort. Most of our team is rather quiet...heheh.

Also: what are some considerations when recruiting incoming freshmen? Since there will likely not be many upperclassmen on the team, there isn't the fear of being the newbie, so is it good to emphasize that part? passing the torch from seniors to freshmen...'you have the chance to Be the Team'...

(I'm a bit depressed that the most enthused student on the team is me--the public relations person, not really an engineering type.)

In the video, I'm going to try and strike a balance between showing non-engineers that robotics is Cool and Exciting, and not scaring off the quiet geeks

May as well make this post a bit longer! How do you deal with recruiting for organization and PR and so forth? It was a happy chance that I joined the team (my dad is the school liaison/mentor) but next year I'm a senior and after that the team may not attract a replacement.
Basically I do everything except actually build the robot (though I do that too when there's no-one more skilled around)....at competitions I am THE scout, I like to brag that I have a ready stream of memorized data on Every team at the event....I planned, filmed and edited the Chairman's Award video this year....wrote the Chairman's Essay...briefed the Chairman's team for their interviews (I was busy scouting at the competition)....took care of logistics....now I'm planning for grant-writing and recruitment....

Anyway, after that little self-promotion , how do you find someone to take care of those things? The organization students don't tend to join the team....and our team is usually small enough that everybody does everything, except for the PR which nobody thinks to do.....so how do you find your behind-the-scenes people? Do they just come out of the woodwork?

[Karibou]

FIRST has TONS of promotional material. Check out http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/...er.aspx?id=952 (it's hard to find, I don't blame you for not being able to find it)

When you're recruiting, it's important to mention that EVERYONE is welcome, and they will have the same opportunities as the upperclassmen. In your case, be sure to state that there aren't a lot of upperclassmen to fear in the first place. If you introduce new members to the fun of FIRST in the beginning, they'll more than likely stay until the end. Don't just host team safety training sessions, host training PARTIES. With rewards. Get them dancing and laughing early on. Nobody likes to wait for promised fun.

Finding the balance between recruiting the geeks and wrangling the non-engineers is really tricky. We've tried for years to promote "it's not all about the robot, we do marketing too!", but we've been unsuccessful. It may be due to the general area's attitude and culture, or we just might not be strong enough. Right now, all of the PR and marketing type jobs have fallen to the team captains. Having written most of our Chairman's award and staying up until 3am to edit our video, I give you some serious awesome points for doing it all yourself (has your team considered you for a Dean's List nomination??), but that's definitely not a job that's designed for one person. I think that the best ways to try and attract those students are a) recruiting through friends ("Hey, you like talking about your toy horse collection, I think you would be a great person to talk about our team at competitions and team events!") and b) actually SHOWING prospective team members that PR is fun, and that it exists. Take videos of students talking to judges, sponsors, and other people. Be sure to promote what you DO, not just throw out titles and responsibilities (if that makes sense).

Note: I had originally joined my team because I wanted to make necklaces and use Photoshop. I've ended up doing just about everything except programming/electrical...and making necklaces and using Photoshop. Keep in mind that not everyone does what they come out to do

$0.02

[Bethie42]

Thank you so much for the input, and especially the link!! Knew someone on good ole CD would come to the rescue...

Well it looks like the promotion for incoming freshmen (at least the first one) will be happening tomorrow, and I was not given advance warning so I'll just be turning out a slideshow/music from photos from the season.....yay for late nights!


Hopefully next year I can find someone to help on Chairman's, fortunately this year I did have a really awesome friend on the team who did the voice-over (huge help) but she was a senior :/ As to Dean's List, I believe that falls under the category of things that >I< am supposed to think about....no-one thought of Woodie Flowers nomination til the day before it was due, and I wound up writing the essay late at night, with input from the team captain.... thanks for the recognition though

thanks a lot for the suggestions, I will definitely try to integrate them into whatever high-quality promotional media I manage to pull together at the eleventh hour.....