My team will be having its first meeting of the year soon in which we will recruit new members. I am going to make a video to introduce FIRST and what is invovled in a way that will show the new memebers that FIRST is freakin awsome. I was wondering if any other teams (I’m sure a bunch have) have made videos or even power point presentations like this, so i can get some ideas for making my video.
-thanks
Yes i have done it once… but was never used… i started off with an animation… that FIRST teams make… if you take this idea i would recommend Team 103’s Stack Attack (2003) Animation… point out what your team exactly does. pictures from events that you guys went to… what you have done for the community. Also show the members how FLL is… show them that the students from FLL becomes FIRSTer at times… also a presentation would help where a team member will talk throughout the presentation… Good luck… 
Take a look at the resource page in the USFIRST website. There are a bunch of pdfs and presentations you can use to tell people what FIRST is really about. Back in the days I’ve always asked for some sort of hand out for people who are not familiar with our program, now I got what I wished plus many more.
Click this link directly to go to the Volunteer resource center:
http://www.usfirst.org/4vol/resourcectr/index.html
Or, you can find it under the volunteer page: http://www.usfirst.org/4vol/index.html
If there are any off season competitions near your team, you should definitely consider bringing your new students there. Nothing is as good as the real thing. All the noise, excitement, teams, and robots.
Or, at the very least, show them some competition footage. Soap 108’s page is an excellent resource if you are looking for videos. I suggest showing the Championship finals.
http://www.soap108.com/2004/events/cmp/index.cfm
http://soap.circuitrunners.com/
Our team (Formely Team 1151, Now 481) used a video for the same reason. The video was well done by one of the members of the team. It included what people already thought were robotics (star wars, Futurama clips included) and what FIRST really is. Along with a great discription, it showed what kind of robots we may have been building and what others have built already.
It was really effective, and that is why i am here now.
This presentation was made into a self bootable CD for Team 237. Fits on a mini CD. We made it to recruit members and sponsors.
We have a video reel which includes the animation, video screenshots of the website and inventor, competition video, and a slideshow of the build season. I usually just mute it and then talk about what’s happening as the reel moves along. I prefer talking live rather than having a pre-recorded soundtrack.
Our Team has a stack of videos we show of FIRST in the news. It is a great way to show all our new members what they are getting themselves into.
You can go one of two ways. Show a highlight reel from last season (from build to copetition to the off season) or the history of your team (we have video from past years from news stories from major networks, to video of competitions and even pictures). Just try and show the best aspect of FIRSt and your team and why those outside the lop should join the family (FIRST robotics: Not just for nerds. 
)