It seemed like the 2017 build season would never arrive but, now that we are digging into the challenges presented by FIRST STEAMWORKS, it seems that the busy pre-season was only a prelude to a calendar-packed build.
Immediately after the Kickoff broadcast Jan. 7, The Green Machine and Team 2239-Technocrats, Hopkins, dug into the game manual to find the robot rules and the game rules to determine “best-strategies.” Calling upon knowledge acquired throughout the preseason, the teams came up with their initial strategies and game plans for the upcoming season.
The team’s commitment to fall pre-season training and outreach events helped make it a smooth transition from preseason to build. Numerous training events, including several ‘team-only’ presentations, helped prepare team members.
At the Minne-Mini Regional in November, the 1816 Safety presentation was a major draw, as was our seminar on Fundraising and Sponsorship. In early December, we traveled to St. Cloud for the 2nd annual Jumpstart. 1816 was involved with presenting or co-presenting 11 of the 36 offered sessions during the day. Topics presented included: Women in FIRST STEM Fields; Hubs, Alliances Coalitions;
Fundraising Sponsorships; What to Expect at a Regional; two different sessions on various aspects of the Chairman’s Award; Marketing at Regionals; Social Media for FRC; FRC Structure in MN, and Awards Submissions. More than 400 people attended Jumpstart, one of the Minnesota SPLASH training days held throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin.
The Green Machine also instituted weekly subteam “introduction” sessions where each subteam was invited to share their “vocabulary” with the rest of the team. The team had an overall FIRST vocabulary presentation during which critical elements of FIRST, such as Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition, were introduced. Many of the Team’s presentations are on our website. Be sure to check our resources pages!