What is the role for team alumni?

[Wayne C.]

I've been reading threads for some time now and our team was recently approached by several college students looking for a team to join and it got me thinking. What is the role for team alumni?

I don't know about you but one of the dreams my crew has expressed is a network of alumni acting as supporters of the regional system and mentor guides for new FIRST teams.

Wouldn't it be great of the corporate powers that be could form a pool where new teams could get a regional registration and not have to kill themselves just trying to raise the entry fee. The team can then concentrate on developing a relationship with a local company and the alumni mentor could be the guide helping both the school and engineers through their first season.

We've seen these types of grants from NASA and Kleiner Perkins. I dream of someday having a system in place for ALL of the country for this. The alumni students are just the enthusiastic people that can make this happen.

What are your opinions? How can we keep these alumni working? What are they capable of? What are they willing to do?

I would relish your ideas here.

WC