Building SustainabilityHow to build a sustainable FIRST teamTeam 1511 Penfield Rolling Thunder

Presented by Lee Drake, Larry Lewis, Crystal Vongnaphone

Key components

• Funding• Active Mentors• Active Students• Sustainable Student

Recruiting• Sustainable

Mentor/Teacher recruiting

• Parent Involvement• Safe environment• Budgetary Control• School Support• Organizational Integrity• Safety glasses• Fun!

Funding

• Goal: Create a constant stream of cash to operate the team, travel, and fund activities.

• Key 1511 initiatives– Strong relation with

major sponsor– Student driven

fundraising– Student driven sponsor

drive– Parental involvement– Secondary fundraising

Active Mentors

• Goal: Have mentors with the ability to both teach and lead the teams other adult mentors and students, from all walks of life. A well rounded, well organized large team of mentors makes it easier for everyone

• Key 1511 Initiatives to create and keep active mentors– Subteam system– Hierarchical organization– Lead mentor backed up by

“leadership assistant”– Push decisions down to

students – manage decision, don’t make them

– Active leadership team– Regular leadership

coordination meetings– Mailing list

Active students

• Goal: Students leading the team, students building the robot, students directing the day to day operations. Mentors providing tools, support and guidance to these students

• Key 1511 Initiatives– Student Achievements/

handbook– Weekly team meetings – year

round– Make the team a family during

build season– Support students with academic

challenges– Accommodate those with

special needs– Make activities fun– Active student leadership– Parental involvement

Sustainable Student Recruiting

• Goal: each year replace at least as many students as you lost the year before to graduation, maintain a critical mass of no less than 20-30 students, relatively evenly divided by class.

• Key 1511 initiatives– Achievements system allows many

to participate, and rewards active participation

– FLL is breeding ground for FRC, an active FLL initiative creates future FRC students

– Demos at the middle school and freshman level are critical

– Get to events with parents and have parents talk to parents about the advantages of FIRST for their kids

– Science Olympiad, scouts, odyssey of the mind etc.

– Every demo an opportunity to recruit

Sustainable Mentor/Teacher Recruiting

• Goal: Avoid mentor burnout, have a system to replace mentors or teachers lost to attrition due to family or other circumstance. Mentor roles well defined and a handoff protocol created.

• Key 1511 Initiatives– For teachers, a strong relationship

with the school. If possible get your teacher mentor a stipend for coaching the team, like a sports coach

– Strong demo program – get kids involved in talking to potential mentors to get them interested in helping.

– Assess the parents of each new freshman recruit year for potential mentors, ask them to step up

– Re-assess sophomores parents, sometimes it takes a year to convince them how much fun it is

– Strong mentor program with many mentors means no one mentor bears the brunt of the work

Parent Involvement

• Goal: Engage parents in the program, utilizing their organizational skills for NEMO activities, recruiting mentors from the parent cohort, actively involving them in their child’s participation, and including them in decision making.

• Team 1511 Initiatives– Parents required to attend parent

orientation for student to participate

– Parents mentor other parents– Meal requirement– Event requirement– Parent mailing list– Recruiting parents as NEMOs– Recognizing parents may hand

off organization duties when child graduates – document roles, and design a hand-off system

– Involve parents in the achievements and trip cost realities

Safe Environment

• Goal: Parents and students need to feel that when a student is at FIRST they are with their second family and that they will be looked out for with as much care and attention as if they were their own kids.

• Team 1511 Initiatives– Tiered mentor system (1,

2, 3)– Strong parental

involvement– Constant communication

(Mailing list)– Parents get team mailings– Cooperation with the

school to accommodate handicaps or IEPs (cannot ask about them though)

Budgetary Control

• Goal: To make the best use of the funding available and control both cash flow and priorities based not only on engineering but on budget (just like in the real world)

• 1511 Initiatives– Finances controlled by

school/sponsor– Certain finances go to school,

others provided by sponsor– Adult controls all sponsor

spends, and approves all school spends

– A student leader is responsible for requesting school reimbursements, working with a teacher

– Tough decisions are made in concert with parents, mentors, sponsors and school

School Support

• Goal: Work with the school to have adequate supervision, vetting of adult mentors/chaperones, transportation and facilities access

• 1511 initiatives– Worked with the school to

coordinate tiered mentor program– Lobbied the board for funding for

stipends, and additional teachers– Recruiting of school liaisons– Take the bulk of organizational

duties for everything but trips off the teachers

– Demo at school board– Involve your administrators in the

team. Invite them just like the football, basketball to go to events.

– SHOW teachers and admins the value

Organizational Integrity

• Goal: Create a clear, concise role description for each “hat” worn by mentors, students, parents and teachers, as well as each activity performed by the team. Train new recruits to these roles, and communicate effectively between them.

• 1511 Initiatives– Clearly defined org chart

with defined roles/duties– Isolated and up to date

email lists– Forum/wikis– Checklists and tutorials– Weekly full team meetings– Year round participation– Delegate, delegate,

delegate– Continual improvement

Fun

• Goal: For INSPIRATION and RECOGNITION of Science and Technology. Be sure your activities are fun, engaging, and build team spirit. The goal is to show students how much fun science, technology and engineering is.

• 1511 initiatives– Active off season event

participation– Summer leadership camp– Meals with the team during

build season– Fun-only events– Subteam organizations– Small rewards– Constant “attitude

assessment”– Community service

requirements