Starting an FRC Team
So you, a high school student, are interested in robotics and looking to join an FRC team, but there isn’t one in your school. What do you do? Well, you start one, of course! But where do you begin? Here are some helpful tips for starting, from our team to yours.
First and foremost, safety is the key to success. Make sure you have a grasp of FRC safety guidelines and proper build etiquette. FIRST releases a safety manual every year to help teams learn and implement safety practices. More information can be found at https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc/safety. You’re also going to need a team of people, consisting of both students and adult mentors. Given the breadth of responsibilities necessary to run a successful FRC team, it is best to have members with a variety of skills. Engineering, programming, grant writing, fundraising, project management, web design, graphic design, and public speaking are all important aspects of maintaining a successful team. Once you have a team, the next step is to register with FIRST, along with your school; however, your team will not be official until the beginning of build season come January.
Now, this next step is very important, and may require outside assistance. Committing to start an FRC team requires funding, so where does one get it? A team’s main source of funding comes from corporate sponsors, which your team will gain over time, but there are other possible sources of income -- booster clubs, fundraisers, sponsorships from local businesses, etc. are all great ways to find the money to get your team off the ground.
Now, this next step is very important, and may require outside assistance. Committing to start an FRC team requires funding, so where does one get it? A team’s main source of funding comes from corporate sponsors, which your team will gain over time, but there are other possible sources of income -- booster clubs, fundraisers, sponsorships from local businesses, etc. are all great ways to find the money to get your team off the ground.
Starting an FRC team may seem daunting, but don’t forget that you have many resources available to you. Don’t be afraid to reach out to your local FRC community for support. FIRST values gracious professionalism, so you can always find a team willing to help. Once your team has registered, payed its fees, and has the members, mentors, and support it needs, all that is left is to watch the calendar until kickoff. Be sure to have fun, learn, grow, and stay safe.
From our team to yours, we wish you luck!
From our team to yours, we wish you luck!
Let us talk about how we got our team together. We were a group of a few students in the Engineering & Architectural Design Class and also part of the Technology Students Association (TSA). Our teacher heard about the FIRST Robotics Competition in a School District meeting for STEM and later mentioned the FRC competition during the class. So we decided to talk to him about it after a few days. Our teacher had some contacts and found out that FIRST in Texas was providing sponsorship for new teams, rookie teams. He talked to the School principal to get approval and we founded the robotics club. Our teacher was able to submit the grant application in September and got the response on October. So, voila, we got the registration fee for the local regional.
We looked at the FIRST website and watched a couple of videos between August and December. We met once a month to talk about the FRC competition. Our teacher had received invitation for an offseason event, he invited parents and students to the event. This was really important to motivate everybody, both parents and students. Just watching the event for a couple of hours was the bit of inspiration we needed.
Our teacher asked our parents to have a meeting in December to explain to everybody what the project was about. We were lucky our teacher had experience with TSA and knew a little bit of Vex. The most important message was the meeting schedule, which during the build season, is one of the most important decisions. Meeting after school and weekends at the school were difficult, and few parents helped out with the lunch during the weekend. This was a rough start, but we were determined.
Our teacher asked our parents to have a meeting in December to explain to everybody what the project was about. We were lucky our teacher had experience with TSA and knew a little bit of Vex. The most important message was the meeting schedule, which during the build season, is one of the most important decisions. Meeting after school and weekends at the school were difficult, and few parents helped out with the lunch during the weekend. This was a rough start, but we were determined.
We went to the kickoff event with our teacher to watch the game release and pickup the kit of parts (KOP), and later went back to the school and made inventory of everything that we had. We met at the school a couple of days during the week and on Saturdays based on our teacher availability during the build season. At times, we would stay as late as 8pm during the weekdays.
FIRST in Texas organized a workshop for all teams in our region during the build week 4. We were able to work on our robot that day, put together the bumpers and crimp the battery cables properly. Some veteran mentors helped us and inspected our robot. There was also a LabView class during this workshop each team was able to work on their own code. We bagged and tagged our robot the stop build date at 10pm. In the end, the whole team was exhausted.
After waiting five weeks for our regional and watching a couple of regionals online during those weeks, our debut was approaching. We didn’t know what to take with us besides the robot. We packed everything that we could on the two totes we got at the kick-off day, it wasn’t much really.
The regional was a blast. What should you expect? We can’t describe it, but you will no doubt have a lot of fun. You have to talk to the other teams, ask as many questions as you can. Everybody will welcome you.
FIRST in Texas organized a workshop for all teams in our region during the build week 4. We were able to work on our robot that day, put together the bumpers and crimp the battery cables properly. Some veteran mentors helped us and inspected our robot. There was also a LabView class during this workshop each team was able to work on their own code. We bagged and tagged our robot the stop build date at 10pm. In the end, the whole team was exhausted.
After waiting five weeks for our regional and watching a couple of regionals online during those weeks, our debut was approaching. We didn’t know what to take with us besides the robot. We packed everything that we could on the two totes we got at the kick-off day, it wasn’t much really.
The regional was a blast. What should you expect? We can’t describe it, but you will no doubt have a lot of fun. You have to talk to the other teams, ask as many questions as you can. Everybody will welcome you.
