FIN Sets Sail with 4 In-Person Town Halls
(Below is a fun recap of the town hall meetings hosted by FIRST Indiana Robotics. If you are looking for the slides presented during the meetings or helpful links we referenced, you can find those at the bottom.)
Last week, Ashley Robbins and I climbed aboard our vessels and set sail around the waves of grain in this amazing state. Driving north to Michigan City, we left the congested interstate for Highway 421, enjoying the beauty of fields feeding the masses and the charm of small towns like Brookston, Chalmer, Reynolds, and Monon, where playgrounds were alive with kids and fields were rich with popcorn, tomatoes, soybeans, and livestock.
Our first town hall was at Michigan City High School. FRC 3936 RoboBlitz has been a fantastic partner in Northwest Indiana for hosting FRC kickoffs and town halls in the past. We had a good crowd of coaches and students from Hammond, Munster, Crown Point, New Carlisle, South Bend, Elkhart, La Porte and more. After hearing requests from the field to return to these in-person events, it was great to see a strong turn out at stop #1. Attendees came with thoughtful questions, impactful suggestions, and actionable feedback to help FIN. We felt energized for the next three nights!
After our first port of call in Michigan City we boarded our ships and headed south to Kokomo and our next stop – AndyMark. Another amazing town hall host, Their sponsorship, partnership, and involvement with FIRST Indiana Robotics is unparalleled. There was fantastic turnout, with more than 40 coaches, volunteers, and students from Central and West Central Indiana joining the crew! Again, we heard some fantastic feedback from our community and we look forward to seeing how we can work together towards our similar goals. Two down, two to go!
We lifted anchor and set sail for the largest port in our fine state, Indianapolis. A big thank you to the University of Indianapolis and the RB Annis School of Engineering for hosting our third FIRST Dive Town Hall. We had a large crowd at this event and even had some robo-toddlers! Conversation ranged from mentor recruitment, to FIN vs FIRST roles, to student internship opportunities and everywhere in-between! The evening wrapped with some tours of RB Annis and plenty of cross-program networking.
Finally, we boarded our ship and sailed down to Evansville to dock at New Tech Institute. Principal Chris Gibson and FRC 7657 Thunderbots were amazing hosts. It was great to connect with teams from Petersburg, Newburgh, Rockport, Sellersburg, and more! It was also exciting to walk into New Tech Institute and see their new banner, recognizing them as a FIRST School of Recognition! We hope more schools in Indiana can earn this distinction. Again, we did our best to field questions about the DOE grant, future event locations, sponsorships, and more before calling it a night.
Friday morning our cruise pulled back into our home ports and we spent some time recovering from this amazing trip. We are so thankful to our hosts and to the mentors, volunteers, parents, and students who attended these in person events. Your feedback is crucial to FIN getting better. Your questions and concerns help keep us focused on providing world class team support across the state.
Overall, we found that our coaches, teachers, and teams are facing similar obstacles across the state and it is exciting to bring the community together to collaborate, share, and problem solve together. We hope to provide opportunities in the future to continue this level of regional networking. In the meantime, we are so excited to DIVE into this season of FIRST with you all and the in-person town halls will be coming back year after year. Thank you again to all who attended!