MARS efforts. suggestions?

[Alex2614]

So we live in a small city in north-central West Virginia. Approx. 60,000 in Morgantown. We are home of West Virginia University. And before we were started in 2008, there was a struggling FRC team (859) at a local high school, and two FLL teams. Since then, that FRC team has folded. Then we came along. We are not run directly out of the schools. We have 4 high schools, 29 students, 18 mentors. We have gone from being a FIRST team to being a non-profit umbrella organization, providing opportunities to everyone.

In our first year, we set a goal of placing an FLL team in every public and private middle school in the county (around 7). that year, we had teams in all but one public and one private middle school. Many had multiple teams. 2009-2010 we had 14 FLL teams representing 5 counties. We completely sponsor these teams from registration to the kit. We have been working with our 4-H program in WV, spreading throughout the state. We have 3 more counties joining us this year, possibly more. Every other saturday in the FLL build season, we hold mentoring sessions where all of our teams come together, and we mentor in all areas of the competition (tech judging, research project, robot, etc.). The week before the state tournament, we hold a scrimmage for these teams. It is run just like the state tournament, and sponsors and parents volunteer as judges and referees. We give out awards and everything. Over 300 people attend. This is all to prepare teams for the state tournament, and as a result have sponsored the 2007-2009 state champions and 2008-2009 runners-up. And almost all our teams come home with an award. Our teams also make up over half the teams at the state tournament. Our next goal is to have a team in all 55 counties in WV in ten years.

We cover all team members' travel costs so that financial issues won't prevent people from participating. We have made presentations to the boys & girls club, the Kaleidoscope summer camp, Engineers of Tomorrow summer camp, area cub scout packs, 4-H clubs, local parades, congressman and the governor, NASA center, BOE, Relay for Life, and many many more. We also participate in the habitat for humanity triathlon to raise money for them.

We have changed our community so much already, and we keep going. We went from our first year, when we were makign a presentation, and some guy on the street said "what the f*** is that supposed to be, some kind of a sat satellite!?" in a really negative tone, to now everywhere you wear a MARS shirt, someone comments about how someone they know participates in lego, or that they saw us in the parade, or something like that. And we have definitely not stopped at the community. We are providing opportunities like FLL to youth throughout the entire state of West Virginia. A traditionally poor state that is traditionally not involved in technology and engineering, especially in the rural areas (that's most of the state).

My question is, what else can we be doing? We are involved as much as we can, but i know there is more to do. Suggestions from some older, chairman's award-winning teams? Thank you all so much for your time!!