IET volunteers

[Harry Cutts]

Hi all,

I've just been talking to a guy from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (who was encouraging people to become members). It turns out that they have a volunteering programme, and that we could apply to be listed in their brochure of volunteering "positions". He's given me his business card, so we can contact him if we're interested. Are there any objections to me emailing him with a description of our mentoring activities, or is this something that a committee member should do?

Some questions for them that I could think of now:
* Would they become a 'sponsor' (e.g. want the IET logo in various places)?
* What sort of training would we have to provide for the volunteers?

Any input would be appreciated.

Harry Cutts

[Peter Law]

Harry wrote:
> I've just been talking to a guy from the Institution of Engineering and
> Technology (who was encouraging people to become members). It turns out that
> they have a volunteering programme, and that we could apply to be listed in
> their brochure of volunteering "positions". He's given me his business card,

Cool, some more info would be useful, though this does sound like a
useful source of both advertising and mentors.

> Some questions for them that I could think of now:
> * Would they become a 'sponsor' (e.g. want the IET logo in various places)?
> * What sort of training would we have to provide for the volunteers?

These seem suitable questions, though it would be useful to also have
some more general information about their volunteering programme -
perhaps this is something you can provide though?
Also, do we know what the likely background of the volunteers would be
- is this targeted at students or professionals for instance?

We should also consider who would do the CRB checks.

Thanks,
Peter

[Andy Busse]

It might be worth pointing out that the IET seem to be heavily involved
in the FLL in the UK. I might suggest trying to find out who that point
of contact is and going from there.

Thanks,
Andy

[Harry Cutts]

On Friday, 1 March 2013 18:59:14 UTC, PeterJCLaw wrote:

These seem suitable questions, though it would be useful to also have
some more general information about their volunteering programme -
perhaps this is something you can provide though?
Also, do we know what the likely background of the volunteers would be
- is this targeted at students or professionals for instance?

All of their volunteers are IET members, so they definitely have a technical background. I would guess that most of the IET's members (and probably most of those who'd want to volunteer) are professionals. 

 

We should also consider who would do the CRB checks.

Good point.

They are, but I don't think it would be that relevant to us. The guy I spoke to said he'd forward the information on to the relevant people.

Harry Cutts

[Harry Cutts]

Hi all,

I've written a draft of my email to the IET. Any comments would be welcome. I'll look to send it by next week's Doing at the latest.

-----

Dear Paul,

We spoke at the University of Southampton on 28th February about IET volunteers working with Student Robotics. I'll provide a bit more about who we are and what sort of volunteering we need.

We're an organisation, made up mostly of university students, that runs an annual robotics competition for sixth-form students. We provide our teams with various items of kit, an online programming environment and a small budget, and give them the rules of a game for their robots to play. This happens in September. They then have until the end of the Easter holiday to design, build and program robots to play that year's game. During this time, we try to send out mentors to each team, who provide technical knowledge, experience, and a critical eye. We also run Tech Days, where teams come to their local branch for a day of robot building. Finally, at the end of the Easter break, all of the teams come to Southampton for a two-day competition.

We manage to provide mentors to most colleges near our University branches in Bristol and Southampton, but struggle to do that, and can rarely mentor colleges further afield. This is where we need more volunteers. Even if they're closest to schools which we already mentor, this frees up a volunteer to do other Student Robotics work. An in-depth knowledge of our kit, etc. isn't required; a quick skim of our documentation (studentrobotics.org/docs) and general technical experience is more than sufficient.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me. There's also more information about us on our website (studentrobotics.org), and a video of last year's final at http://youtu.be/nzrsJhVAH7M.

We have a few questions ourselves:
* Would the IET want its logo to be presented as a sponsor logo? (This would probably be fine.)
* What sort of training would you expect us to provide to the volunteers?
* Would Student Robotics or the IET handle CRB checks for volunteers?

Yours,

Harry Cutts

Student Robotics Blueshirt

(I'll send it from my @studentrobotics.org address, and CC committee@.)

Harry Cutts

[Andrew Cottrell]

Hi Harry

It'd be a good idea if somehow you could redirect them to the 15 minute video on student robotics? 

Andy

Harry Cutts
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Andrew Cottrell

http://ultimationee.blogspot.com

[Harry Cutts]

Hi Andy,

On 6 Mar 2013 22:17, "Andrew Cottrell" <ultimate...@gmail.com> wrote:
> It'd be a good idea if somehow you could redirect them to the 15 minute video on student robotics? 

Good point! I don't seem to be able to find it, though. Does anyone have a link?

Harry Cutts

[Peter Law]

Andy wrote:
>> It'd be a good idea if somehow you could redirect them to the 15 minute
>> video on student robotics?
>
> Good point! I don't seem to be able to find it, though. Does anyone have a
> link?

It's in our stream: http://www.youtube.com/user/StudentRobotics

Peter

[Harry Cutts]

Hi all,

I've now sent the message, with those modifications. The committee has been CCed.

Harry Cutts

[Andrew]

A semi-related thing:

Going to the Big Bang Fair with work on Friday - it appears they're running the finals of the "VEX Robotics" competition. Looking at the floor plan, it seems quite substantial (between a third and a half of the main hall at the ExCeL). I'll try and make a point of saying hi to the organisers, during a quiet moment in the day.

Andy

Harry Cutts

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