FIRST Team Help

[Sara Robinson]

Hi, I talked to one of your members at the Mastodon Science Fair and he mentioned your group was interested in being active with FIRST.  The reason I'm posting for help is actually for another coach.  She's coached FLL teams for two years, but has several kids from her team last year who have aged out of FLL and she's been unable to find them an established team in the FTC division (unfortunately, there's always more kids than teams).  I was talking to her today and she is willing to coach/coordinate, but she doesn't feel she has the academic background/experience and needs an engineer mentor for the team.  I'm not sure if any of your members or your group would be interested in helping form a new FTC team or if anyone knows of someone with an engineering/robotics background that would be willing to give up a couple hours a week during the FTC season to help a team out with their robot?  If you also would happen to know of an established FTC team that's taking new members that would be great too.  Some of these kids live for robotics, so we're just trying to find a way to make sure they get to keep going with it.  Even a point in the right direction would be great, thank you!

[Jim S]

It would be helpful if you could post what part of town these people are in. 

[Sara Robinson]

They are from the High Ridge area. 

[Sara Robinson]

Jim,

 

They are from the High Ridge area, do you know anyone that would be interested in helping?

 

On Saturday, March 26, 2016 at 9:12:50 AM UTC-5, Jim S wrote:

[Morganism]

Hi Sara,

The Board of Directors has been discussing options regarding FIRST robotics, and there are several options being discussed. I do not think a formal conclusion has been reached yet. There certainly will be some informal, and possibly formal mentoring available. Most likely it will be some form of arrangement where teams can use our space.

I would also like to mention at the Tech Challenge level things change in certain respects. Specifically, there much less coaching and much of the team members working on their own. After the first year or two, the kids will mostly be running things by themselves. If she coached FLL, then she understands the registration mechanics and how organize the presentations. The kids will design and build the robot. She should not be worried about moving up. Might be a little rough to start, but it is certainly something she can do.

[Sara Robinson]

Thank you, and I completely understand. I talked with you or another one of your members this past weekend at the Robot Expo down in Park Hills and that would be wonderful for a team to have access to the maker space and mentorship your group could provide.  I'm hoping to bring my team as well as the other coach and team up to the 3D printing meet up on May 27th--we're looking to purchase a 3D printer for our educational co-op that we all belong to.  I still need to make sure it would be okay to bring a group of kids up, we will probably only have around 10 kids total who will be able to attend, but I will have a definite number within a couple weeks.  Should I just post here in the open discussion about getting permission? It would be nice to be able to have her talk to someone who's actually coached an FTC team, I showed her the last post and she is very interested in working with you all.  Let me know if you would like any additional information from her. 

[Brad Tissi]

I'm a mechanical/electrical engineer that lives in High Ridge, and while I don't have any experience with FIRST or much with robotics specifically, I would like to help some.

An upfront warning though, due to work and other commitments, I generally can't commit to consistent hours and would recommend continuing the search for a main mentor that could commit to more. 

[Sara Robinson]

Brad, thank you for volunteering and we'd be glad to have your help.  I agree that the team will probably need someone who can donate more consistent time in the lead role as mentor but we would be grateful for any help you could give them.  What would be the best way to contact you about your availability?