I’m looking for an established FIRST robotics team in the San Mateo Co. area of California. Although I have no experience with “robotics”, I do have 23 years experience in life science instrumentation R&D, a small machine shop, Pro-E/autocad experience, a reasonably good sense of humor and I make great coffee.
Welcome to CD.
The FIRST website has a search function to find teams in your state at http://usfirst.org/whatsgoingon.aspx. Select FIRST Robotics Competition, de-select events, and select California. There are 117 teams with two in the San Mateo area. One is established and one is a second year team. The website for 840 (Aragon Robotics) is http://www.aragonrobotics.org/ and they list their email address as [email protected].
Would you consider moving to New Jersey? 
We have a need for great coffee here.
Just kidding. Who in their right mind would move from San Mateo to NJ? BUt just a quick Thank You for making the offer. I think that you don’t need any Robotics experience, your work experience will be excellent preparation for what we do. Just remember, it’s not about the robot. It’s about showing kids how cool it is to engineer things.
I think the “small machine shop” part and the CAD part will really get a team’s attention more than the coffee.
If I might make a suggestion, the established team probably doesn’t need the help as much as a new(er) team that is still trying to find itself. Now, team 3045 (Junipero Serra High School) might have that problem less than some, as they have a Rookie Inspiration Award to their credit already.
Also, you may be able to contact some of the members/mentors for a team through Chief Delphi. Go to the member list (up in that orange bar) and hit the “search members” button, then do an advanced search for the team number, which will be either 0840 or 3045 in this case. Now the trick is finding someone who is still on the team and likely to respond–last activity date from their profile is usually a good indicator.
A team in Fremont is interested! We’re across the bay but we can probably drive over when it’s convenient. The machine shop is a great interest to us, since we don’t have any sort of permanent workspace or school facility yet.
Oh and I like your offer of coffee. We are the Insomniacs, team 2489. 
I’ll get back to you really soon - let me check in with a few team members. In the meantime, you can email me at [email protected].
Thanks!
The Aragon Robotics Team, from San Mateo, is interested! We’ve been around for about 8 years now, but we could definitely use another mentor!
Our contact info from that previous post is correct-- www.aragonrobotics.org and [email protected]. Feel free to visit/email us there, or contact me directly at [email protected].
I still need to check with my team, but I just wanted to let you know that yes, we do exist, and yes, you could probably count on us!
Thanks for the offer, & I’ll get back to you on that ASAP.
IF you ever decide to winter in Florida Exploding Bacon would offer you a home.
WOW, it’s nice feel wanted!! I’m working through the list. Thank you all.
So we talked with our teacher-mentor, and we would be glad to arrange a meeting, if you would be interested in mentoring the Aragon Robotics Team, Team #840!
You can contact the team at [email protected], or contact me directly at [email protected].
Thanks!