I am glad this discussion has started. I always shake my head when I see posts from anxious parents looking for teams for their children. I rarely, if ever, see positive responses.

The real problem, it seems, is that there are very few "neighborhood teams". Teams that will allow anyone to join. I know of one such team in the Hampton Roads area, and I think her business has closed as of this year, so that will leave none. All other teams are associated with a school, and they are limited to students at that school. If your school doesn't have a team, you are pretty much out of luck.

I have often thought about starting a website to help parents connect their kids with a team, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it probably wouldn't do much good because there just aren't very many teams looking for kids.

I hope that I am wrong about the neighborhood teams. Maybe it's just a Hampton Roads thing. Maybe more teams are not associated with schools than I realize. In which case the website is an excellent idea.

So, what's the solution? I'd like to encourage these parents that are in search of a team to start a team of their own. Then they can spread the wealth and help a few more parents even. Other than that, I don't know what the solution is.

I'd love to see this discussion continue. Scott, I'd love to volunteer to help you, but I'm not the enterprise programmer type. I am sure there are a few here though.

Best Regards,

Skip Morrow

On Tue, Aug 28, 2018 at 1:54 PM Scott Rakestraw <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Helping people connect and form teams is a challenge for FIRST. As a region run by volunteers, we see the need and would like to build a Team-up application to help people connect with and form teams. We need volunteers to help build it.

If you are product manager, scrum master, UX/design professional, web developer, software engineer or QA professional who would like to work on a community project to help people connect, please contact me.

I am hopeful by coming together as a community, we can build a solution that will solve this problem and still meet the youth protection standards of FIRST.

Thanks,

Scott Rakestraw
VA/DC Judge Advisor
[log in to unmask]

From: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Chintan Dixit <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Chintan Dixit <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, August 28, 2018 at 1:34 PM
To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [VADCFLL-L] Looking for a spot in FLL Team in Herndon / Reston nearby Area

Are people looking for teams for their kids been successful in finding team in their local areas? It will be interesting to see the outcome of such outreach. I request parents to share views. I usually don't see a response to such posts. I can only hope that parent are finding teams for their kids. My own experience has not been very good. This has been a challenge for newcomers, and in some cases with experienced kids once their team is dissolved and/or they move out to another area. I wonder if FLL has recommendations to engage student and parents into FLL activities and start local teams if parents are willing to help via forums like this? If I understand correctly, northern VA has the most FLL participation worldwide.

From: Komal Tewtia <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2018 11:51 AM
Subject: [VADCFLL-L] Looking for a spot in FLL Team in Herndon / Reston nearby Area

Hello Coaches and mentors,

I am looking for a spot for my son in a FLL team in Herndon area. He is a rising 4th grader and passionate about research and robotics. I would be available to help the team in many different ways. Please let me know if you are looking for a team member.

Thanks in advance,
Komal Tewtia
703.989.0062

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