Sustainability In FRC Teams

[Tom Line]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

As someone who learns a lot about soil enrichment, expensive seed, and the costs/impact of fertilizer due to the fact that I'm married to someone who does this for a living - I like some of the analogies you are making. When thinking about the fertilizer (and to an extent the seeding process), we also have to take into account and look at the cost/waste of run off and how to help prevent it or minimize it as well.

I'm liking this a lot.

Jane

To continue that analogy then, it's time FIRST remembers to fertilize and water existing teams.

A perfect example is a new FIM program in conjunction with JC Pennys. JC Penny is trying to sponsor NEW teams near their stores. If an existing team starts a new team and gets them up and running, they get a nice chuck of cash as well from JC Penny.

THAT is the type of self-promoting FIRST needs to do. It's the perfect combination of starting a new team and supporting the old. Go a step further though. Convince the sponsor to support not just the new team, but become a permanent sponsor of the existing one as well (If the team budget is below a certain level).

Another example: part of team system is that we will lower the amount a student pays to join based on how much they fundraise. Why doesn't FIRST offer a similar incentive for starting new FLL teams and FIRST teams?

[Chris is me]

I don't really think "start a new team and get money" solves the problem. If anything it makes it worse. There's no financial incentive to help any team that's not brand new, and if you're on the brink of failure maybe you don't have the resources to start 10 or 15 FLL teams. It's great for exponential growth, but that doesn't make any team any more sustainable.

[JaneYoung]

Many teams make ends meet year to year, stretching all of their resources each year to do that. It is good to take a step back and look at what would help the teams move beyond piecing it together like that:

- Savings/working towards saving money for 1 to 2 years ahead.

- Investing in and stabilizing the team in the areas that help guarantee consistency and sustainability. We've learned the value of veteran team members working with and mentoring the younger/newer team members as we move from year to year. Sometimes it works well, sometimes it's a flop - especially when a large pool of seniors graduate and not enough training/mentoring has taken place consistently to keep the team on the level it was. Then we are prone to seeing dips in performance and achievement until we take the time to re-evaluate and stabilize. Same thing with the Parents' Association. Training/mentoring/tweaking/fine-tuning/adapting to change are constants. Teams that understand that and continue to monitor the growth and development of their team are the ones who understand how important all of this is and how valuable it could be when shared with teams who are struggling and who may not be aware of or have the resources/people power to develop in this area. Or - think they don't. I've found that those assumptions (and the attitude that goes with them) can stifle growth and development more than the reality can. Watching a team bust through those assumptions and embrace their own path of challenges and where they want to go with them - is very cool.

Jane

[IKE]

Would this be a good thread to list some of the initiatives that FIRST (both HQ direct and approved from HQ) to help teams continue to be sustainable?

I keep debating (in my head) if this is an idea generation thread, sharing best practices thread, or a rallying thread (that would culminate in some sort of letter, or something else).

[Andrew Schuetze]

Originally Posted by IKE

Would this be a good thread to list some of the initiatives that FIRST (both HQ direct and approved from HQ) to help teams continue to be sustainable?

I keep debating (in my head) if this is an idea generation thread, sharing best practices thread, or a rallying thread (that would culminate in some sort of letter, or something else).

So as FIRST in Texas will need to start the work now to sustain the efforts of the last two years and the current big potential influx of new FTC and FRC teams, Idea generation and if not more important, listing of best practices will be a great help. What has been done by FIRST organizations to help sustain teams that has worked in other regions? You can send me a pm or an email with details if a discussion needs to transpire to facilitate a more complete understanding on my part.