Team in Danger!

[tiffany34990]

as warren b. stated it is hard with multi schools with support and rules about having a teacher representing each school...so good luck with that.

funding...go to malls, outside of businesses to get the word out...especially go to small local businesses and just ask for like 10 bucks. it slowly adds up. candy sales work wonders it seems at my school just go to bjs or sams or costco and buy bulk.

a home...we had that problem forever in s.p.a.m. finally we have a solid home. we moved 3 times during build season one year. we went to a warehouse that had some empty space for rent.. try to make a deal...instead of paying rent that can be their way of funding the team. publix use to just provide subs, sodas and chips as their funding for S.P.A.M.
or if you have a willing parent to give up their garage that would be nice...

try for grants...always some around...talk to your teachers and staff at your school and show them how important this program is along with the school board and community..put out a news article in the local news and get on TV!! people love to help out if they realize it's how great FIRST is...some businesses just love you aren't asking to fund a sport or cheerleading.


BEST OF LUCK!!!

[Gdeaver]

Team 104 has been struggling the last 2 years. 2005 could be it. I'm going to try and find some hope for a couple VEX teams. I think we have fallen below critical mass to continue the FRC team. That's the appeal of VEX. It has a low buy in and can be more of an independent study for students. We too are a muti school team. I'm looking at some possible games to have between the 2 high schools The first one is maze madness.

[Nica F.]

sorry to hear that. i do agree that the multi-school idea is good, the only problem is with mulit-school robotics teams is that sometimes its hard to get things settled with where you guys are gonna build( which school) and sometimes theres some friction between people from the other school. but if you choose a school that you guys trust and everything, you would be able to create an awesome multi-school team which i bet you guys will.. good luck from team 22

[the_short1]

that realy sucks.. your team was really cool ..

well team 1596 is comprised of ..4 schools..

SSM Ontario, Korah C & VS (13 ppl), St. Basils (1 person),
SSM Michigan, SOO High (12 ppl), Brimley (2ppl)

logistically....all the build members travel to the school with the best equipment, then the animation and webdesign team go to place with best computers. and any other stuff that can be made in other places gets done.. but keep one place central (likely your school since you guys started the team), and have a email list (our head mentors all have a list of our email addys.. all events are sent to us .. *they just go send to "Team" and it sends to all the ppl on that list..

that seamed to work really well. as long as you delegate the tasks up and make shure everyone knows whos in charge (per school) and one ultimate head person..

[LPaton716]

Our team is also very small (about 16 students and 1/4 are graduating). We also don't have a major corporate sponser. However we are supported by many local foundations and our school board pays the entrance fee.

Even with the much appreciated support and great mentors, the students have to raise about 15,000 dollars (assuming we continue to go to two regionals.)

Most of our fundraising is done by students going off in groups of two (generally) and asking local businesses in our rural area for sponsorship. This has been very successful. We also try to get involved in community festivals such as Railroad Days and the local Audubon festival. Charging $1 to drive the robot seems to be pretty successful.

As for recruiting students...most have come because they had heard about it from a friend. So see how many friends you can make and get them to come.

Best of luck!

[ThomasTuttle]

Multi-school teams can be a pain. I'd guess that your organizational hassle is of order n^2, where n is the number of schools. My team is a multi-school team, and organizationally it's hard, because we only have one teacher involved in the team at each school, and they're full-time teachers as well. A crucial part of making this work would be having a good website/email list/communication system so team members all have timely notification of events and time to work things out. Things have to be coordinated farther in advance so everyone knows about it. I've missed my share of meetings because they were announced during the day they were being held and I didn't check my email. That kind of scheduling works in one school, because you can just tell people in person, but you have to know everything 1-3 days in advance to make it work. However, you do get a much bigger community and the possibility of more mentors. Good luck.

[ThomasTuttle]

Originally Posted by Wayne Doenges

Lemmings non Sumus (We are not Lemmings)

Nonononono, it's lemmingi non sumus (or maybe lemminges non sumus), you have to use the nominative plural of lemmingus.

[santosh]

The best thing I can see you doing is start searching for a new corporate sponsor and start some of your wonf fundraisers. Also, Wheeler has participated in BEST robotics for the past 2 years. It is a large step down from FIRST but can still prove very challengin due to the enormous constraints.

[Termite233]

I think you guys should start going around tomorrow and try to find a new big sponsor. If you can't get a big sponsor, try to get a few smaller ones. Do tons of fundraising (as much as you can stand. It may be tedious but it's worth keeping your team for). As others have said...if you're thinking about becoming a multi-school team then go to the other schools in your area. explain the problem. try to get funding from the school board. have a robot demonstration at one the schools and try to get kids involved. and if you become a multi-school team make sure you have good communication. I noticed someone said about having at least one teacher at eazch school. though this would make it a lot easier, it's not absolutely necessary. coming from a two-school team myself I can say this. We have one teacher and she is at the other school (not mine). we have a nice mailing list for the whole team. whenever there is news, our coach sends out the information via email to the whole team and we respond if necessary. It helps a lot with communication.

also to keep your team together in a multi-school team...try to have get-togethers. like parties. every year my team has a party at the beginning of the year and one at the end. these are just for fun and it keeps everyone friends. we have a few meetings a year. and our schools are basically rival schools. so we have friendly competitions when at the events as to who's school was announced. it's all in fun. but all in all, i wouldnt want my team any other way. it's perfect the way it is. so try to find more sponsors and do whatever it takes to keep your team alive. even if it means going to BEST robotics. it may not be FIRST, but it's still keeping alive your spirit about science and technology and gracious professionalism. I hope this helped.

[shyra1353]

The majority of FIRST teams have problems with lack of funding, team members, and knowledge being passed down. Part of the greatest things of being in FIRST is being able to look back over a season and talking about how you overcame all of that. Don't give up. Obviously you realise that because you are asking for help.

My advice for funding is ask everyone you can possible think of. There are probably people in your school who have parents/relatives/friends of bigger companies that would make good potential sponsors. Ask newer businesses that need the publicity. Set up a booth in a mall. Put flyers up around schools, libraries, etc. Sure hardly anyone looks at those flyers, but the one who does might just be the one you need.

No matter what, don't drop out of FIRST, even for a year. My advice would be to stay with it, but take next year slow. Maybe a robot that does only one thing. Don't try or expect to win a lot of awards. And as selfish as this will sound, but don't try and help other teams out. Take the year to focus on your team and rebuild yourselves.

Good luck and I hoped I could help.

[Dave9247]

Don't forget the money from the Google people. Was that $50,000,000? Might be chump change to some, but goes a long way in my neighborhood.

Another way we have found to generate visibility is to enter into parades. There are a lot of people out there that would love to help, but they don't know how or where. Beat the bushes, local hardware stores, service stations, pizza joints. Everyone wants to help, just tell them how.

Are your graduating members returning as mentors? The knowledge is already there. Bring it back. How about working on weekends when the college folks come back?

Good luck to you guys. If we can help in any way, let us know.

[Christine_364]

Our team has varied from 15 to 30 students over the last few years...... and the longer we go on, the less corporate sponsorship we've seen. Fortunately, Dupont is still sponsoring our registration..... but the team has had to earn/raise the bulk of the money. We usually go to 1 regional and Nationals and have to earn at least $13K each season. The students and parents do most of the work and are able to raise the needed funds by putting on a Golf Tournament <see the Team Fusion website for a guide to run your own ( http://www.teamfusion364.org/modules...rtid=16&page=1 ) This 2004/2005 season, the team had a net gain of over $23,000 ..... in a single, well-coordinated event. It is amazing what can be accomplished when the team works together to overcome obstacles.

And our team size was dwendling for a bit.... but the team modified a previous year's robot to be a T-shirt shooter, and now attends the school's sporting events and local community events to show what they've accomplished, to show their team spirit, and to do a little advertising. The team was HUGE this past season compared to others.

Don't give up. Get out there, roll your sleeves up, get a plan together, and put that plan into action.

Good luck!!!!!
Christine

Team #364 Mentor
Who-Ra!

1102 is a county-wide team. Our county is 40,000 people and 5 high schools, plus the Career Center. We started as a 1-school team, and added schools each year by going to to registration in the fall and inviting science and math teachers to come look at the team workshop.

There are advantages to multi-school teams.
1. You don't compete with other schools in your area for sponsors.
2. The school board and district offices can see it as a community effort and send some $$ your way. They don’t have to worry about "hey you funded school x, but not us".
3. If you get too big, then you can "spin off" a second school team, mentor them, and they hit the ground as a rookie with some experience.

M'Aiken Magic won a regional Engineering Inspiration Award and they cited the fact we have 5 schools and county-wide exposure as a big positive.

As for sponsors, build the robot, and they will come. Like others have said. it is your best fundraising tool. Put it in the 4th of July parade, take it to the church picnics, school registrations, and the county fair.

We got on the "rubber chicken" circuit and went to ladies clubs, Rotary Club, garden clubs, ASME, National Management Association, Computer Clubs, LAN parties, Toastmasters, anybody who holds a monthly meeting and has guest speakers.

Look in your newspaper and see those obscure articles entitled "Local Lawyer Tells Rotarians about Mission trip to Bahamas". Those are the folks who will listen, and pay. Rotary came though in year 1 with $1500, and this year with $5000. (and their logo is a gear, it looks cool). Also look at your graduates this year and see what companies gave scholarships. That is a good indicator of who is interested in education.

Finally, rent the local movie theater or playhouse and have an open house. Demonstrate the robot and lets the kids tell what they have learned. We invested $300 in an evening rental and got $2000 in sponsors and t-shirt sales.

good luck

[stinger]

our team is verys small, we only have around 16 people, 3/4 of them are senoirs and graduating leaving 4 freshmen, including myself to fend for them selves. Our school is very athletics oriented and recruiting is hard. we could only afford to go to 1 compatition this year and we're hoping to fill up the roster with local graduating LEGO leagers which means we'll have a very young team.

[TheAnsweris42]

Well, our team is in it's rookie year, but we have members from all over the county and even some out of it. Members come mostly from my high school's SCI-MA-TECH (sicence-math-thelastpartexplainsitself) group, especially the sophmore class. The other largest group is from the Manufacturing Tech. Academy for precollege students attached to the city college, some from the other high shool in the city (rivalry aside), and like I said, a few from other nearby highschools. I'm the only member on the team that actually just showed up, as far as I can tell, and I'm a senior to boot. The problem I've noticed with it, though, is that there are too many people from every place on the list that either dont have transportaion, motivation, and I am starting to think that a lot of the 50+ (Yeah I know...) people at our first meet before the kickoff didnt understand the sort of commitment they were really in for. Plus conflicts with sports schedules, and there are maybe 15 of us on actual full-time duty. So, in a situation like ours, having a multischool team was just about the only way to actually get any motivated, dedicated people to go on all of this. I dont know if that helps any, but I hope it might add just a bit to the influx of information.