Keep in mind that for a rookie team, the robot is at minimum $1000 less than registration for one competition, and we don’t know how first is going to handle registration for next year.
Lots of good advice in this thread. Probably the hardest part of starting a community team is finding a home. We started FRC 1360 5 years ago as a community team. Fortunately we had several experienced mentors which is why we have a low number. I approached the guy who ran the shops at the local community college, Sheridan College, and they were happy to give us a home until they closed that facility a couple of years ago. It was great and I highly recommend that approach. We had full use of their shops were they trained tool and die makers, millwrights and welders. They gave us the code to the tool crib and told us to have fun. We were just about the only ones who used their waterjet. I also highly recommend making friends with your local town councillors (or equivalent). We were introduced to the Director of Economic Development who has been a real friend to the team. She and her staff have a really good grip on what is going on around town and found us meeting space for our FLL teams and FRC team and put us in touch with a local entrepreneur who give us space for our machines. We were able to use a now Town-owned post office for meetings and a practice field. That ended when the Fire Department decided that a 1950s federal building didn’t meet current code. We now rent space classroom space at a local school and the local yacht squadron has welcomed us into their clubhouse where we set up a practice field in their off season. There are lots of resources in the community. The hard part is tapping into them which is why I recommend getting to know your town councillors.
Over the years we have helped several new community teams get started and some school teams convert to community teams. A few have been run by Grade 12 students with a parent to sign the paperwork but that is difficult. Continuity and sustainability are critical as is funding. I suggest to each team that they contact service clubs in their area and ask them for help. They have loads of contacts as well. We charge $400 per student for the year. It hasn’t been an issue and gives you a great nest egg. We do have an angel fund for those who can’t afford it and the team is incorporated as a Not For Profit in Ontario and is now registered with CRA as a charity. All mentors must have a Criminal Background Check with Vulnerable Sector Screening. We get several requests per year for copies of the paperwork we’ve generated - bylaws, articles of incorporation, team handbook, application forms etc.
The last five years has been quite a ride and I would never go back to a school based team. If we can help by providing copies of our paperwork, please DM me or visit our website, www.1360.ca
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This. As someone who started a community team, it’s really easy to put off buildspace and focus on the bot – don’t do that. Start early, and aim to email at least 100 places, if not more – leave no stone unturned (i.e. I thought a place wouldn’t work, and as such didn’t email them until we were getting really desparate (~2 weeks until built), and it ended up being the perfect home for our team)
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All the above suggestions are VERY good.
You are starting a FRC in a very different environment than all the veteran teams have. DON’T GIVE UP!!!
Also, if you would like to bring in Home Schooled students (aren’t that all now?) get with your local 4H.
My team, FRC Team 1501, is a 4H team. We are a special interest group team (one of the first SIG with 4H). We get insurance from them.
Concur. 3928 is a 4-H team, they are great.
Question about 4-H teams: how do you handle accounting? I recall 4-H having pretty strict requirements about dual-signing everything (which pretty much mandates a dual-signature checking account), and it seems like it’s set up for much smaller budgets in general than is typical for FRC teams. Do you have team members purchase on personal credit cards and get reimbursed?
That’s what we do. There might be a way to streamline it, but I don’t know if we’ve really looked into it.
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Sorry, I’m not involved in the money part. I do recall that our budget (money + in-kind) runs around $60,000/yr. I assume that is neither among the most frugal nor most speedy teams.
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You should make a good team structure and good leadership. You can establish team structure by team manual (example 254,1678, etc ) A team can have money, technical skill, awards. However, if there aren’t a good team structure and good leadership, the team won’t be sustainable. For example, A team starts with Rookie All-Star, Highest Rookie Seed, and Quality award in their first year, but A team can’t get an award on the year after because of team structure problems. It is an example. There are teams who tried so hard but don’t have an award. Please remember that" Rome wasn’t built in a day" and having no award doesn’t mean your team didn’t work hard.
I have worked for 3 different first-year teams (two of them start the season as a rookie, one of starts season as a veteran team ). I have many experience in rookie teams I don’t say doomsday will come however there will be problems in build season, competitions, etc. (Example build season starts as 16 members, end as 5). (Note that I don’t personally blame someone ). You can get ahead of problems by improving structure and leadership. All teams can make mistakes and mistakes are a good opportunity for learning (example 148). If you want to be sustainable, make a good team structure and good leadership. If you want help, 8079 is always ready to help you.
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