Need Help Creating a Binghamton Robotics Team

[Martinez]

Evening,

My name is Jeff Martinez, Alumni of Team 229 Division by Zero at Clarkson University, New Hire at Lockheed Martin Owego, and I need help starting a FIRST Robotics Team. More specifically, there is a group called Engineering Explorer Post 76 sponsored by Lockheed. It’s a group of employees and local high schoolers of around 30 people and each year they have an engineering project. Last year they built Telescopes, this year involves Lego Mindstorm and next year I want to encourage them to try FIRST. That’s where I need your help. I want to educate and excite them about FIRST Robotics, any advice you could give me would be most welcome.

What I really want to learn is:
Are there any FIRSTers in the Binghamton Area looking for a Team?
Do any of you have Lockheed Martin Sponsors or Mentors?
Any teams in the Greater Binghamton Area, or elsewhere, willing to help us out?
How did your team first get started and what did you do to get people excited?
Anyone have advice for a potential team where most haven’t heard the name FIRST before?

My ideas so far are:
Next meeting (Tuesday), bring some recap videos from 229’s previous seasons.
Encourage everyone to attend a group meeting to watch Kickoff.
Find a near by team willing to attend a meeting and show off their bot.
Attend a Regional, ether at Rochester or NYC.

So far the Adult Leadership seems to like the idea, and is allowing me to pitch my idea to see what the Students feel about it. That’s why I’m posting here, and really my next move is up to you guys. There is a regrettable lack of FIRST Robotics Teams in the Greater Binghamton Area, and my goal is to forever change that.

[Andy Baker]

Jeff,

Good luck. As you are looking for robotics and automation expertise in Binghamton, be sure to check out Universal Instruments. These folks make some of the best electronics assembly and placement equipment in the business. Their skills would translate very well as technical mentors on a FIRST team.

PM me and I will even give you some names.

Andy Baker

[Mark McLeod]

I think the closest veteran teams are:
Team 639 in Ithaca (about 30 miles) http://www.team639.org/
Team 84 in Towanda, PA (about 40 miles) http://www.team84.org/
Team 284 in Dimock, PA (about 45 miles)
Team 222 in Tunkhannock, PA (about 60 miles) http://www.tigertrons.com/
Team 145 in Norwich, NY (about 60 miles) http://www.trx145.org/

Our principle programmer AIBob just started at SUNY Binghamton in Computer Science and he needs to keep busy .

You could show them the FIRST promo video and the Atlanta wrap video to help describe the program.

Team 365 MOE started years ago from an Explorer Post.

[KenWittlief]

if you check the top of the CD pages, there is an off-season competition in rochester, NY in 9 days, 22 hours and 09 minutes (as of this post).

Would make a good road trip to let people meet actual teams, see real FIRST robots, talk to current mentors and sponsors...

[JudyVandy]

There's also a post-season in South Jersey this weekend, Duel on the Delaware, that both 84 and 222 will be attending. It's a bit of a hike for you, but it's a good show!

84 is not goint to Rochester for the post-season comp. It's just too close time-wise to Duel where we had already made a commitment.

If there's anytthing we can do to help, be in touch and Chuck will give it his best effort. Good luck in your initial season. The learning curve is perpendicular, but it's well worth the effort!

[Tim Delles]

Hey Jeff. Its great that you are trying to start a team. Like Ken said there is going to be an offseason comp in rochester. If you are interested in bring some people that would be great. They could experience the competition first hand, and not just through some videos, but then again they would have to have time for it. Anyways if you do come to Rochester next weekend stop by and see, we will be there.

Good luck again in getting the team started.

Tim Delles

[camtunkpa]

I know that before the 2004 season 222 had talked to some people from the Binghamton area who were interested in starting a team for the 2005 season. They were interested in starting a team, but I don't know what became of them because I didn't see their team in 2005. I will do some checking and see if I can get you any names.

[Kims Robot]

Jeff,
1511 would be happy to come down and help out... we could give robot demos, and/or I would be willing to give you all the documentation I used to start our team up here in Rochester (based off my lessons learned from founding 229!!). The only issue with robot demos is we would likely have to do it on a school holiday or a weekend, as it would be enough of a trip from rochester, and our team meetings are tuesday nights as well.

I may have a few contacts at Lockheed Martin, and I do know that they have teams elsewhere (locations/numbers escape me). Aren't/weren't you guys BAE recently? or is that another plant... I get mixed up with all the buys/mergers.

And this is really short notice, but if you can get anyone interested, come up to Ruckus October 29th. We can let some of your kids drive our bots around, and they would get to see a live competition!!! Entrance is free! Im sure we could even find you housing if you needed it. 229 will be down too, so you can show them the team you were on too!

As for the leadership, the way we did it last year that worked well was we had mostly adult leadership as you suggested (mainly me, supported by the Harris Engineers), and this year we are transitioning to 90% student/10% Adult Leadership... The first year is hard to have students do a lot of the leading, as most dont know anything about FIRST. What we did do, is each subteam had a mentor & student leader, and thats where they got the flavor for leading to start up this year.

Originally Posted by Martinez

What I really want to learn is:
Are there any FIRSTers in the Binghamton Area looking for a Team?

Im not sure about FIRSTers, but like I said, I might have some LM contacts

Originally Posted by Martinez

Any teams in the Greater Binghamton Area, or elsewhere, willing to help us out?

Like I said, we can help you out with whatever you need

Originally Posted by Martinez

How did your team first get started and what did you do to get people excited?

I have a lot of documentation on this, and am working on a "power rookies" document based off of this. But reality is, talk it up, do any recruiting you need to (USE robot demos!!), then try and train your team in what they need to know for build. But FIRST can be as much or as little as you want, depending on when you start, so just do what works best for your team! But real competition is the way to get them really psyched... I dont think my team "really" got it until we held the Pre-ship Rally... this is why you should really try and bring a bunch of them to Ruckus!

Originally Posted by Martinez

Anyone have advice for a potential team where most haven’t heard the name FIRST before?

Hmm, Clarkson, middle of nowhere... yeah I think Ive covered that haha. At Clarkson, I first obtained sponsorship (of course I told them I would only go there if they would let me start a FIRST team my freshman year... so it was recruiting for them!). Then I went out recruiting mentors. I put up posters, signs & sent emails. We had an info session night with free food (free food is key!). We then built up some ideas, and went to the schools to recruit students... more posters, signs & another info session with food. At the schools its easier because you can get teachers to help you target students. At the info sessions, show videos, do a presentation, have a robot to demo (I dragged 176 up to clarkson to help out). You will hook them The other nice thing about binghamton, is even if LM cant give you a ton of money, you have plenty of business around you and can do a patron drive to get more money.

Anyways, please let us know how we can help... 1511 "the old rookies" at your service!!

[Martinez]

Thanks for the Info all. I'm planning to attend Ruckus and looks to be a fun time. The next group meeting is Tuesday, so I'll mention the competition and hopefully drag a few people North with me.

[Wayne C.]

Originally Posted by Martinez

Thanks for the Info all. I'm planning to attend Ruckus and looks to be a fun time. The next group meeting is Tuesday, so I'll mention the competition and hopefully drag a few people North with me.

Above Judy mentioned attendiing DoD this weekend.

I'll take that a step further,

How about your existing FIRST team and the new team attend Brunswick Eruption on Nov. 19th in Central NJ? We encourage existing teams to bring pre-rookies using borrowed refitted older robots. If you don't have one we might even have the answer to that. Right now I am looking to fill the last two slots.

If playing in the games doesn't get these guys jazzed up to start a team nothing will. And Binghamton is only 3 hours away at most. 222 (Tunkhannock) is coming down. We can find a cheap hotel for you if needed.

Think about it.

WC

[Bharat Nain]

Originally Posted by Wayne C.

We can find a cheap hotel for you if needed.
WC

And there is a slight chance that you can stay at my house/maybe someone elses house. No promises but just a heads up

[Martinez]

Ok, I'll be in Rochester for Ruckus this weekend and be more than happy to chat with people about starting a team. Presentation went well, but to be honest I couldn't tell if they overwelmed, bored or just didn't care. No one even came up to ask me questions during the meeting. So far, not a single interest in coming to Ruckus ether. Not much a surpise I suppose, but dissappointing. It will just be me, and at least I can avoid a one day 6 hr road trip!

[AIBob]

Originally Posted by Martinez

Evening,

My name is Jeff Martinez, Alumni of Team 229 Division by Zero at Clarkson University, New Hire at Lockheed Martin Owego, and I need help starting a FIRST Robotics Team. More specifically, there is a group called Engineering Explorer Post 76 sponsored by Lockheed. It’s a group of employees and local high schoolers of around 30 people and each year they have an engineering project. Last year they built Telescopes, this year involves Lego Mindstorm and next year I want to encourage them to try FIRST. That’s where I need your help. I want to educate and excite them about FIRST Robotics, any advice you could give me would be most welcome.

What I really want to learn is:
Are there any FIRSTers in the Binghamton Area looking for a Team?
Do any of you have Lockheed Martin Sponsors or Mentors?
Any teams in the Greater Binghamton Area, or elsewhere, willing to help us out?
How did your team first get started and what did you do to get people excited?
Anyone have advice for a potential team where most haven’t heard the name FIRST before?

My ideas so far are:
Next meeting (Tuesday), bring some recap videos from 229’s previous seasons.
Encourage everyone to attend a group meeting to watch Kickoff.
Find a near by team willing to attend a meeting and show off their bot.
Attend a Regional, ether at Rochester or NYC.

So far the Adult Leadership seems to like the idea, and is allowing me to pitch my idea to see what the Students feel about it. That’s why I’m posting here, and really my next move is up to you guys. There is a regrettable lack of FIRST Robotics Teams in the Greater Binghamton Area, and my goal is to forever change that.

Well as you have PM'ed me thanks to Mr. McLeod's comment's, I must reiterate the fact that I would be very interested in getting some mentors from here at SUNY Binghamton, and I would love to volunteer, life just isn't the same without FIRST.

[Martinez]

So far the quest continues and all goes well. Right now I'm and trying to gain Corporate Sponsorship from Lockheed Martin Owego and have receieved a positive email from the Community Relations Rep. I have also found a Tech teacher at Owego High School who sounded intereted. Further more, I'm also started networking a small group of volunteers to build a strong foundation from. So far so good and I strongly feel we will have a team ready for the 07 season.

Two questions for the fokes here:

Is anyone one aware of a team at Waverly High School? The Community Rep mentioned that school by name, had been to a demo, and was "truly impressed."

Does anyone know where I could find a copy of the IRS letter stating that the organization is tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue code for FIRST? It is one of the items require to gain a contribution from Lockheed Martin Owego. I may or may not need it since the Rep hasn't requested it, but it would be a good thing to have.

[Mark McLeod]

Originally Posted by Martinez

Does anyone know where I could find a copy of the IRS letter stating that the organization is tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue code for FIRST?

You have several potential sources.
1) If you are still going through the Explorer Post, they are a division of Boy Scouts of America and will have access to a 501(c)(3) letter through their local Council from the National organization. The Post can request a copy from their local Council.

2) If with teacher involvement you end up as a school club, then of course the school will have a similar IRS designation that will satisfy Lockheed Martin reporting requirements.

3) If the grant is processed through FIRST then you can call 1-800-871-8326 and ask for the Financial dept.