Well, this past Saturday’s meeting was a little quieter than normal. Like most of us these days, many of our team members are engaged in other activities, summer jobs, or have a trip or two planned for this summer. We did have a good meeting though.

This week we got to meet Emma, Mathew, and their Mom. They stopped by to take a tour of the Future Workforce Development Center (FWD Center) and talk with Mr. Cody about our team and potentially joining. After showing them around, we sat down and spoke about how our team is organized, our schedule, and how things are generally run.

Fortunately, they have a little experience with FIRST and FTC. Emma and William have an older sister who was on an FTC team a few years ago. So they know a little bit of what’s involved in being a successful member of a robotics team. One of FIRST’s more popular slogans is that this is “the hardest fun you’ll ever have.” We would agree with that statement. It is tough, but it can be oh so rewarding.

One thing about Emma and Mathew joining the team now is that this is really the best time of the year to join our team. Having about 9 weeks or so (can you believe it’s almost go time again??), we have a decent amount of time to do some training before the season starts and things get crazy. Programming, Engineering Concepts, Engineering Documentation, Safety, Professional Speaking, CAD Modeling,… There’s so much that it can be quite overwhelming. That’s why summer is so great. Quite a bit of time to take things easy and get a good grasp of things.  

    That being said, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention that we have plenty of room on our team for new members. If you’re already on a school team and want to just come and hang out with us for the summer, that’s cool too. We’d be happy to have you. So as always if you would like information on our team or our summer programs and events, sent us an email (ftc10191@gmail.com), private message (on FB), or call Mr. Cody.

    One last thing. We are working on plans to restart some of our summer classes next month. The current plan is to have one on Solidworks (CAD Modeling Software). This has been one of our most popular classes in the past and we are hoping it will continue to be. So, be on the lookout for more information in the coming weeks.