Meeting FIRST People in odd places

[kmcclary]

Originally posted by Meli W.
When I went to National Latin Convention this year at Trinity University, I wore my robotics shirt one of the days. I had a decent amount of people come up to me about it and we started talking. To think...Robotics geeks are also Latin Nerds...

That's FUNNY... At our school, this year our team's Teacher IS the school's Latin teacher. If some of his students join the team, I'll bet we'll end up with a cool Latin team slogan this year...

(Last year, our Teacher was from the Math department, who became too busy to do it this year. We don't even HAVE a metal/wood shop at the school right now, so getting "the shop teacher" to work with the students isn't an option.)

OBThreadRef: I ran into a FIRST person from another city on a bus once who was wearing a team shirt. I'm often approached when I'm out of town if I happen to wear any kind of FIRST related clothing or jacket. There's so many teams now, if you wear a team shirt on vacation trips, you're bound to meet another FIRSTer (FIRSTite? FIRSTian?), or general robotics fan, and have a nice conversation.

- Keith

[Sophey Chan]

I went to our first football game tonight, against Titusville, and the head cheerleading coach has a neice on Commbat, 21, and we were talking about it, you know apparently they have a 'sign up sheet' in what was it, breeze hallway?, which never actually appeared, it was quite odd...I could only of imagined the game in Commbat was there..

[AlbertW]

Originally posted by Bill Gold
Yeah, what Jim said. We used to possibly pass off as twins, but there are very distinct differences in our appearances now.

haha, i guess i was lucky at the mall. cause i was like (uh... i don't know. pick a name.) "Vivek, this is bill gold."

[Gadget470]

Once when I was working as a Camera-Man for the Easter Bunny set at Oakland Mall here in SE Michigan, I saw someone with a TNT shirt on. I yelled out the team number, but he didn't turn.

I guess that's not really meeting per say.. but still.

[Koko Ed]

I have a pair of ex-FIRST members in my class. One is an ex-X-Cat from last year Sakath our scout mistress in our theater production seminar(we're doing a comedia play "the Servant of Two Masters" she is part of the mask making team, I'm on props. For some reason the professor is making a big deal about a six-week production schedule. ) and in my Wednesday class I have a past member of Rush robotics Zachary Wheeler who was on the team back in '97. He beamed with much pride when I informed him that his old team had won a regional Chairman's award. There was another kid in my class who knew an awful lot about FIRST. I'll have to grill him further on what team he was affilaited with.

[Jessica Boucher]

She'll probably kill me for posting this....(ssh! don't tell!)

...but here's a pic of me & one of my SigKap sisters, a 571 alum.

[ngreen]

I talked with FIRST student from half (4) of the team in my state (9) while running an K-State Open House display about FIRST.

I sat next to a kid in macroeconomics in the fall all semester and one day I saw him wearing a stack attack shirt. So after class I asked if he was from Newton, he was suprised that I knew where he was from. I had to explain to him that I saw his shirt and there were only two teams from Kansas at the championship and one was the team I was on.

[rachakate]

I was in the gym a month ago, and in the recycling bin was one of the Shasta FIRST water bottles. That was from 2002, right? It surprised me.

[OZ_341]

OK!

So in September, I am standing around the cafeteria on lunch duty and a girl walks by in a Buzz Team 175 shirt. Our school is in Ambler,PA and Buzz is from CT. What was even more strange is that Buzz was one of our Galileo Division Partners at the Championship.

I couldn't believe it! So I talked to her and found out she just moved here. The odds are already tough enough, to move from one FIRST school to another FIRST school, but to land with your alliance partner is truly off the hook.

Anyway, needless to say that was the easiest recruiting I have ever done.

She will be back at Nationals, this time wearing "Daisies" instead of bright yellow.

Good luck to everyone at Nationals and in the off-season!!

[The Lucas]

Originally Posted by OZ_341

OK!

So in September, I am standing around the cafeteria on lunch duty and a girl walks by in a Buzz Team 175 shirt. Our school is in Ambler,PA and Buzz is from CT.

What is it with these Buzz kids invading our area? Last year I was walking down Main Street in Newark, DE with some friends (ironically 2 were MOE alumni and we were all wearing various FIRST shirts) to go get some chicken from Cluck U, when we saw a guy in a Buzz shirt with a couple other guys. It was an old school shirt, probally from 2000 or earlier. We were going to him that "Delaware is MOE territory and you can't wear that" , but they went into some store and we were hungry so we just went into Cluck U.

[BandChick]

I have to drag this back up from the depths...

The other day I walked into a SWE (Society of Women Engineers) meeting. I'm sitting there talking to the Treasurer and her friend comes over and says one word to me. "FIRST?" Of course, my head jumps up and I ask how she knows of FIRST. Turns out, she wasn't a FIRSTer, but her roomate was and got her interested. There was also a team at her high school!

Just the other day I met one of my older fraternity Brothers who went to North Brunswick High School the year team 25 was started.

Oh, and turns out, my RA (resident assistant) last year went to the high school that's home of the Techno Ticks.

[Allison K]

As long as it's back up from the depths...

I was walking around Epcot this summer, and an employee recognized my 226 shirt, and said they enjyed watching the cometition. Not a FIRST person, but somebody who remembered a t-shirt for two years, so that was pretty cool.

Later this summer I was in Houghton, MI. and somebody walked by me wearing a FIRST shirt. I didn't get a chance to talk to them though.

At the Woodward Dream Cruise this fall I saw somebody walking around completely decked out in HOT gear (t-shirt, jacket, and hat).

And I ran into somebody from 902 at one of my little brother's DI competitions.

[Aignam]

I had PSAT classes in early October and I sat next to a girl who (as I overheard) was from Scotch Plains. This struck my interest, as I was due to join Scotch Plains's team in about a month or so, but I didn't bother to ask if she was on the robotics team.

Come Brunswick Eruption, I walked through the pits looking to introduce myself to 1257, and who do I see other than the PSAT girl.

PSAT Girl: "Do I know you?"
Me: "Err...I think so."
PSAT Girl: "Oh, right! From the PSAT thing."
Me: "Yeah, that's right. So what team are you on?"
PSAT GIRL: "1257. You?"
Me: "Errr....1257."

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

I have a pair of ex-FIRST members in my class. One is an ex-X-Cat from last year Sakath our scout mistress in our theater production seminar(we're doing a comedia play "the Servant of Two Masters" she is part of the mask making team, I'm on props. For some reason the professor is making a big deal about a six-week production schedule. ) and in my Wednesday class I have a past member of Rush robotics Zachary Wheeler who was on the team back in '97. He beamed with much pride when I informed him that his old team had won a regional Chairman's award. There was another kid in my class who knew an awful lot about FIRST. I'll have to grill him further on what team he was affilaited with.

I just remembered he was from 116 and says he was in the A&E special. I'll have to look closely now.

I also recently spotted a kid (hard to really call him a kid since he had a full beard) shopping at the Wegamns in Henrietta in a 1403 shirt (probably not all that surprising since RIT kids shop that Wegmans alot and alot of FIRSTers end up at RIT).

[Jeff Waegelin]

I was wearing my FEDS shirt today, and found out that my RA's girlfriend was on Team 301. Kinda cool...