FRC Team Update 5-6-2022

Opportunities with FIRST Indiana Robotics

FIRST Indiana Robotics is looking for your input, advice, guidance, etc.!

Board Committees

Board of Directors

Have you ever thought about sitting on a non-profit board of directors or do you have a parent, mentor, etc. on your team that you think would be a great member of our board of directors?  Please reach out to Renee Becker-Blau – rbeckerblau@firstindianarobotics.org

AnchorFRC Growth

Coaches, mentors, parents, students, etc.  This is the time of year that we begin to follow up with schools and community groups showing interest in FRC.  We need your help.  Here are some ideas.  Let us know how we can help your team with any of these.

  • Introduce FIN to teachers, principals, parents, etc. in areas with no FRC that you have connections.  Ask your principal if he/she knows nearby principals and make introductions to go do demos.
  • Attend outreach events in areas with no FRC teams specifically to encourage parents, students, etc. to learn how to start teams.  We can get you flyers, brochures, etc. to help with messaging.
  • Incubate a rookie team.  Invite a nearby rookie to spend their first year with your team in your shop, mentor them, guide them, etc.  After the first year, continue to support them, but have them work from their new home.
  • Invite some students/parents from a nearby school or community without FRC to attend an off-season event.  Provide them with the materials they need to go back and promote starting a team in their community.
  • Help create, support, and/or mentor FIRST program teams in elementary and middle schools nearby your community.  Help those parents understand the FRC opportunity that awaits them in high school and the benefits of starting early.

If you have other ideas, I’d love to hear them and can share out here.  We are better together!

Anchor2022 Student Impact Survey

Coaches, please pass on this link to your students. This survey is an important tool for us to use when approaching legislators, potential sponsors and potential groups to start teams.

Thank You!

AnchorInternships

Fishers-Based Internship Opportunity –  WPR Services is looking for a summer intern for someone who is on a school path for computer engineering or computer science. That person will be doing coding for R&D projects using Android, Java, HTML or VBscripting and database creation.  The position pays $10/hour and would be a maximum of 20 hours per week at the Fishers location.

Chris Harris
WPR Services
317-513-5269
www.wprservices.net
chris@wprservices.net

FIN – Communications Internship
FIN – Website Internship

End of Year Ideas

As your team wraps up another season, here are a few suggestions to prep for next year.

  • Hold an end-of-season banquet. This is a great way to thank sponsors, recognize students for individual accomplishments, and celebrate a long and hard season with some fun and food.  Provide mentors with framed and signed team pictures, invite key sponsors, and provide a plaque for them to show off in their offices.  Invite community or school leaders to thank them for their support.
  • Conduct a SWOT analysis.  If you have never done one of these, reach out and we can do a training call or even help you conduct your analysis.  Here are some templates.
    • Google Slide – make a copy of this, save it with a new name, and move it to a folder for your team to use.
    • PowerPoint Slide – download this from the link here and use it.
  • Hold some spring call-out meetings.  Most fall activities will have spring call-out meetings for recruiting.  Have one at the high school and at any middle school that feeds your team.  You could do them right after school for students or hold one or two in the evening with interested parents.  This is a great time to get your budget in front of them, recruit new mentors, emphasize the importance of parent involvement, etc.  Make a list of things parents need to do for involvement. This is what bands, choirs, sports teams, etc. do every year.  Parents are used to this.
  • Host a spring open house for local businesses.  Use this event specifically for sponsorship and mentor recruiting.  Do training ahead of time with your students so they are prepared with “elevator pitches” and can direct attendees to not just see the robot, but are ready to commit to a pledge of support before they leave.

AnchorState Championship Photos

The team award pictures are on our Flickr Page – https://www.flickr.com/photos/indianafirst/albums/72177720298134423/page9

Scroll through the rest of the album for other great photos.  Thank you to our FINtastic Media team led by Hugh Meyer.  We are always on the lookout for additional volunteers to help with media coverage before, during, and after events.  If you enjoy taking pictures, shooting videos, posting on social media, etc. please consider joining the PR and Marketing committee.  The more volunteers the more quickly we can get high-quality media out to our teams and to media outlets.

AnchorRegistration Opens May 19th – Regrants

Save the date!  May 19th is when registration for the FIRST Energize season will open.  Another reminder is to make sure you regrant any unrestricted money sitting in your account before the end of the school year.  You will receive emails about this from FIRST.  Lead mentors for teams that have a “credit balance” in their FIRST account must submit regrant requests before the end of the FIRST fiscal year, which ends June 30. If you have issues with your regrant request, please email firstroboticscompetition@firstinrpires.org or call team support –

Phone (FIRST)

(603) 666-3906 or
(800) 871-8326 

  • Finance Dept. x 563