You can count on a veteran FIRST team to help you get started; all you have to do is ask. A veteran-rookie mentoring program is in place to answer any questions new teams might have about any aspect of the FIRST experience, from fundraising and finding sponsors to what to expect at competitions. (For more information on starting a team, read the ASME Guide to Starting a FIRST Team, available on the ASME website at http://www.asme.org/education/precollege/first/tmguide.htm.

Many teams have only one high school teacher coordinating their FIRST team.  Depending on the amount of time the teacher can dedicate to FIRST, this may be fine.  It is ideal if two teachers can be involved.  If there are no teachers available, a parent or other adult can serve as the team’s coordinator.

Most teams operate with a handful of engineers and technical mentors, each skilled in different areas of engineering.  It is best to have several mechanical engineers, a programmer, an electrical engineer, a machinist, welder and a fabricator.  An engineer well versed in pneumatics is also useful.

There are several ways to find engineers and technical mentors to work with the team. Approach your corporate sponsor about lending technical support in addition to financial support. Also find out if any of the parents on the team know (or are themselves) engineers or technicians.

While FIRST is a year-long activity, pre-season activities are more organizational in nature.  In the fall, teams spend their time recruiting students, securing sponsors, hosting fundraisers and getting organized.

The official competition season opens with a kickoff the first Saturday in January.  Teams have just six short weeks from the kickoff to design and build their robots.  Teams meet several days a week, if not daily, to meet this deadline.  Most of the meetings will take place when the students and the engineers are available, after school and on weekends.

At the end of the six-week period, teams must ship their robots to the site of the first registered competition.  Once the robot is gone, teams continue to meet, although much less frequently, to get organized for the competitions which take place in March and April.  A sample competition season work schedule is included at the back of this section.

 Additional Off- Season Activities

During the off-season, many teams choose to participate in events sponsored by individual teams.  This is also a great time to educate the public on the wonders of the FIRST Robotics program. Some schools extend their support to sponsoring FIRST LEGO League teams—a junior robotics competition for middle school aged children. Others run workshops on various topics to raise the proficiency of the team before the start of the new season.

 The Financial Commitment

 How much money is needed?

Teams procure funds from schools, corporations, fundraisers and student contributions. Many teams have a single corporate sponsor that contributes a large portion of the funds. Other teams have multiple sponsors, each contributing smaller amounts. Either way, the idea behind FIRST is for high schools to form long lasting partnerships with corporations. For ideas on how to approach a potential corporate sponsor, see section entitled "How to Approach a CEO to sponsor a team."

As part of your initial $6,000 registration fee, FIRST provides each team with an extensive array of hardware and software valued at $15,000.  While the team uses these items during the competition season, they are often accessible to the faculty and entire student body throughout the rest of the year. This is what is included:

Microsoft, File Maker Pro, 3D Studio Max and Inventor from AutoDesk.

The team will also need a place to build the robot, equipped with a machine shop and a computer with access to the Internet.  An ideal machine shop would include a lathe, a band saw, a drill press, a mill and aluminum welding capabilities, although many teams make due with far less.

If your school does not have an adequate machine shop, look at the other schools in your district.  Often  a middle school or another high school will have a great facility.  Another option is to ask your corporate financial sponsor if it would be possible to build at their facility.  If this is not possible, contact companies with machine shops in close proximity to your school and volunteer engineers.  Simply by lending the use of their machine shop, a corporation becomes a sponsor of the team.