A friend and I have been wondering if it is at all possible to restart by basically becoming a rookie team again. We have no money and no way to get any money and the rookie KoP has quite a few items we need. We also have never been picked for alliance selection because of past performances. So would it be possible to get a “fresh” start.
Thanks,
Taggerun
I’m not quite sure what you would get out of doing that. You would still have to pay the registration fee (now $6000 instead of $5000), and you still need money to build a robot. If you really have no money and no way of getting money (which I’m sure isn’t true**), maybe you should consider switching to a lower budget program like FTC or VRC.
** There are plenty of ways for teams to raise funds. Solicit local businesses for sponsorships. Apply for grants. Hold a bake sale or car wash. There have been plenty of discussions about this topic on here in the past. Search through them and see what ideas you can use.
Team 1754 did that once. There was a gap year, and basically no continuity of mentors, and one student who remained. We were able to keep the number, start again as rookies, get a rookie grant, etc. Reach out to your regional lead mentor.
And the Regional Director and all around awesome guy is Mark Lawrence. [email protected]
He’s a super awesome individual, and if this is what your team really wants, he can help you accomplish it.
Prposal: FIRST Relief Fund
This attached thread’s pitch still seems valid to me but there is also some relevant information about currently available grants.
Assuming you had more than five kids from the existing team, you would not qualify as a rookie team.
But aside from Rookie All-Star/Inspiration, what’s in the kit, and eligibility for some grants rookie status ain’t nothing but a number. You have about six months to get money and get mentors (and those two are often linked). I can think of multiple veteran teams who went from “who?” to Einstein-caliber over a couple years when they had a leadership shift and overhauled their processes. (Who really remembers 148 before about 2007, or 217 before about 2004?)
Talking to your regional director or a FIRST Senior Mentor in your area can also help. Partly by getting you top-of-mind when they talk to potential sources of support, partly by also making you talk through your needs and challenges. If they’re hard to get a hold of, reach out to a team who’s doing better than you and ask if you can take their head mentor to lunch some day. Picking their brain can often lead to good ideas that you as a team can implement.
Your team was picked at Northern Lights this year! Easy to forget such things…
Use that as momentum and promote the great achievement to potential sponsors. I’m sure some sponsors would see your progress as something to build on. Good luck!
Getting the rookie KoP isn’t going to be a magic solution to your problems. If you and your team leadership would like, I would be willing to set up a skype call to discuss some of the difficulties you face, and see if we can find a way to overcome them. Items like fundraising, finding mentors, recruiting more students, or basic team/season organization can all play a huge role in a team’s success, and I don’t think any of us here really have a good idea of what your teams issues are to be able to help.
All that said, this looked like a very successful year for you! I looked through your team history on TBA, and this was by far the best you’ve ever done, ranking 18th and playing in the playoffs as a backup team. This is also the first year you’ve had a winning record during quals (5-3). Those are real successes you can build on for next year.
My team focuses on improvement. We had a rather sharp drop-off in 2015 (we were alliance captains of the winning alliance for North Star in 2014, followed by ranking horribly in 2015), and our focus across 2015, 2016 and 2017 was to simply improve from one event to the next and one year to the next. The improvements we needed weren’t with funding or obtaining any specific items. It was with team organization and processes, and it’s really paid off. The team felt we performed very well this year, despite not getting picked for playoffs, and our changed focus and organization led to winning EI, a first for the team.
Finally, I just want to say that we’ve played with you at a few events over the years. When we’re in a picking position at those events, past performance doesn’t come into our decision. At all. We have a process for scouting that focuses on collecting quantitative on-field performance data. That lets us rank teams by clear performance metrics (such as average # of gears delivered, or average number of fuel scored, or number of climbs), in order to assemble the best alliance we can. It doesn’t matter if you were in first or last place last year, we care about what you’re doing now, at this event.
When you go into next season, focus on doing one thing very well. Set clearly defined goals for each week that will further your ability at competition. Get a chassis put together and driving first, then have your drivers spend as much time practicing as possible. If possible, have them drive a previous year’s robot for a while (You’ve been around long enough to have a cRio sitting around, use it to keep an old robot running)! Next, focus on adding functionality. Spending a meeting planning things out early in the season will save you more time than you would believe later on.
Practicing driving is one of the biggest things most teams can do to improve on-field performance. If you plan things out well, you can get wires run on the new robot and only transfer over the key control system components near the end. Get a space dedicated for the electrical system (all on one board!), and start laying out that board. Draw outlines for where things go, prepare the wires you need and get them secured, then drop in the components at the end. With a little hard work and preparation, you can get the control system transferred and up and running in under a week!
They were brought in as a backup for the 6th seed alliance, per TBA alliance data and the fact that they only played in quarters matches 2 and 3. So they *played *in elims, but they were not *picked *for elims.
To talk about the original topic, I can only add that to help with money, reach out into your community. Do demos and show off yourselves wherever you can. We’ve found multiple sponsors this way, and it can help your team too 
As some have said, you may not qualify as a rookie team if you have too many members transferring. However, I (and the rest of 2485) would be more than happy to help y’all figure out a strong financial plan for the future.
Have you considered shifting to FTC or VRC?
If you have fewer than 10 students and even fewer mentors, and have difficulty securing more than $10k in funding annually, it may be better to participate in one of those. An easy path to success is by failing and fixing faster and faster. The traditional FRC model in Minnesota does not allow you to do that. FTC and VRC can.
If you have five or more students with previous FRC experience, you cannot be considered a rookie team. You could still reboot and become a new “veteran” team, and they’ll give you a new number reflective of your experience (so you’d be a new team in the 3000 range). You would not be eligible for Rookie All Star or any rookie grants, though of course you’d still have to pay the rookie fees for the KoP.
That said, rebooting a team isn’t the ideal solution if your problems are largely financial. It may work out to be a discounted way to get some control parts, but then in 2019 you’ll be right back where you are now.
Ah, no we weren’t, we were a backup. Apparently it is easy to forget such things.
Our main wish is to wipe our competition slate clean and gain some extra parts. I should have stated that to begin with.
I would love to work with you guys to help secure funding for your team. One of my roommates is the daughter of your Athletic Director and I’ve had some email correspondences with your community education office. Just PM me if you’re interested!
The point is still valid. Build on your success and experience in eliminations. Promote this and companies will want to be a part of a progressing team.
I did want to say that 3036 made a positive impression me this year (3rd in rotor points and a decent center auto at Northern Lights). I was pretty happy for your team to see you get called in as a backup (although bummed for 3723 who was having one of their best showings get cut short).
I doubt anyone making alliance selections is concerned with your past years’ performance. They are looking at what you are doing at the competition that weekend.
Granted, some legacy teams with “famous” numbers will get more consideration in alliance selection - sometimes undue consideration. “Why’d they get picked?” “I don’t know, I guess because they’re the FamousBots Team.”
But switching your team to a rookie number won’t have any effect on that.
As others have offered, there are better ways to fundraise for parts.
#LakeSuperiorAlliance1
Erasing the past is no way to work towards a better future. I think you might be making assumptions and looking at these issue from the wrong angle. Take Jon up on his offer for a Skype call. Figure out where you guys need help to improve.
I would be willing to offer some remote assistance to help you guys where I can.