From 6 to 15: Systems That Let a Community Team Grow

Team 447 is a community team in Anderson, Indiana. In one year we went from about 6 students in season to about 15 at a typical off-season meeting. We did not do it with a recruiting campaign. We sat at festivals with a robot that plays catch, a TV, QR codes, and info sheets, and one mentor worked the crowd for sponsors. At the shop we hired a dumpster, held a work day with students and parents, and made the space theirs. On the wall, a vibe-coded NFC badge screen shows who is in the shop, a project Gantt chart, and the tasks for the day. Idle students get pointed at LearnFRC. This session is those three systems, what they cost in mentor time, and what we would skip.