The start of the robotics team

A few weeks ago I realized that my daughter was about to turn 10 which meant that it was time to buy her a Lego Mindstorms NXT set. I've been eyeing these sets in the Lego store for years, waiting for my daughter to turn ten so that I could buy it for her. These sets retail for about $250. It's easily the most expensive box in the store. They look to me like great fun, and I hoped that it would inspire her to pursue a career in engineering.

Then all at once, I sort of had a brain storm. I knew about First Lego League, and I sort of knew that there was a team nearby. I decided to look into getting her on a team because at this age everything is more fun with friends than it is with you mom. I couldn't find a team for her, but I did find that the Girl Scouts were promoting the idea of starting teams in troops.

I love the girls in my daughter's troop, so I started looking into the possibility of starting our own team in our own troop. Then I realized how expensive it would be. It costs a lot more to start a team than it does to buy a robot at the Lego store. The Mindstorms NXT 2.0 kit at the Lego store now retails for $280, but the robot kit required for a FIRST Lego League team costs $420. Then its another $225 to register the team nationally, $74 for local registration, $75 for a field kit, about ~$50 shipping and handling and finally another ~$75 for the lumber to build a competition table. All together it costs about ~$900 to start a team.

That was well beyond my abilities, so I started looking into ways of raising the funds through participation fees, fundraiser or corporate sponsors. I spoke with my daughters troop leader, and we decided that we just didn't have time. We would have to put this on the calendar for next year. :(

Then, out of the blue, my daughter's troop leader received an email from the Callie Vandewiele, Program Specialist, Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington about some grant money that hey had to start a team, and they just needed a coach! Well, I jumped right on that and we got all signed up with Cathy Swider, Project Administrator, Oregon Robotics Tournament & Outreach Program. I am going for my all-day training on 09/22/2012.

I'm very excited and I decided to start this blog to chronicle our adventures.

How did your team get started?