Business Plan

2022 Business Plan

FRC Team 2992

The S. S. Prometheus

Mandeville High School

Mandeville, Louisiana

Table of Contents

Section 1 – Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………. 3

1.1 – Team History 

1.2 – Prior Awards

1.3 – FIRST

1.4 – Inclusion

1.5 – Membership and Mentorship

1.6 – Leadership

Section 2 – Community Impact …………………………………………………………….….. 8

2.1 – Outreach

2.2 – STEM Camps

2.3 – STEM Advocacy

2.4 – Supporting FIRST 

Section 3 – Financial Summary ……………………………..………………………………… 14

3.1 – The Booster Club

3.2 – Fundraising

3.3 – Sponsorship

Section 4 – Sustainability ………………………………………………………………………… 16

4.1 – Staying engaged during the COVID pandemic

4.2 – SWOT Analysis

4.3 – Risk Analysis and Action Plan

4.4 – Future Plans

Appendix ………………………………………………………………………………………….………..21

Connect With Us

Email: mandeville.robotics@gmail.com

Facebook: @MandevilleRobotics2992

Instagram: @team2992

Youtube: Mandeville Robotics

Section 1 – Executive Summary

Motto – We build robots and so much more!

Vision Statement – Team 2992 strives to educate and inspire the next generation of STEM and business professionals and spread interest in STEM to our entire community through outreach and gracious competition.

Mission Statement – Team 2992 pursues our vision by creating a fun environment for peers to learn, meet new people, share ideas, and work for self-betterment while learning to overcome and enjoy challenges.

1.1 – Team History

Beginning in 2008, Mandeville High School hosted a competitive robotics team, started by a former member of Team 1477 Texas Torque who had moved to the area and wished to pursue FIRST further. In our rookie season, the team successfully qualified for the FRC Championships.  

Originally, the team dubbed itself Prometheus, donning red and white colors. However, Mandeville High is the home of the Skippers, and after our second season, the school requested we alter our fiery theme, leading to the creation of the name we bear today: The S.S. Prometheus. The S. S. Stands for “Sailing Ship”, which is accompanied by the team color blue.

Since our founding, Team 2992 has never faltered in its existence, gaining new experiences and finding new ways to sustain itself even in the toughest of seasons. Beginning in the 2015-2016 season, we began a partnership with the City of Mandeville, which graciously agreed to lend us space in the Public Works Building for use as a shop. 

Every season is a unique and vital portion of our history; we’re looking forward to yet another exciting year!

1.2 – Prior Awards

Starting in our rookie year in 2009, we won the Rookie All-Star Award, advancing us to the world championships. In 2010, we earned our first regional win at the Bayou Regional. We would continue to perform in the top 25% until 2015, when we lost our founding mentors and shop space. In 2015 and 2016, our team fundamentally restructured and we gained a new lead mentor, Mr. Mike Sonnier. After the 2016 season, we were able to move into our current shop space, the Mandeville Public Works. Between 2017 and 2020, we got back to ranking in the top 25%, and we were worlds Division Finalists in 2017 and 2019, worlds Alliance Captain in 2018, and Arkansas Regional Winner in 2019. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, our team did not rest. We spent nearly a year designing, building, and programming our 2021 robot, which would go on to win the Sodium At-Home Division and unofficially rank 3rd worldwide. We continued onward to win both the Red Stick Rumble and Ozark Mountain Brawl offseason events.

This season, we hope to continue to build upon our successes and our goal is to make it to the Einstein division at the Houston World Championship. But regardless of how far we make it, we will learn, inspire, innovate, and have fun along the way!

1.3 – FIRST

The FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition (FRC) was founded to promote math, science, and engineering by engaging high school students in a “varsity sport for the mind”. Mandeville High School’s Team 2992, The S. S. Prometheus, is one of over 3000 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) teams participating in this rigorous and exciting program. Each January a new competition is unveiled, and teams are given about 2 months to design, build, and program a robot that must accomplish a variety of tasks in a collaborative game and be able to operate autonomously. This year’s game is called Rapid React.

 Each year, the students design and build a new robot, as well as the supportive wiring and software to control it. The process includes game analysis, design, prototype development, building, testing, and integration. Students apply academic skills such as calculus, geometry, physics, and computer science, gaining experience in areas including leadership, business, project management, software development, systems design, electrical and mechanical engineering, parts fabrication, and Computer Aided Design(CAD).

1.4 – Inclusion

Participation in Team 2992 is free from any discrimination, and we are proud of our diverse student body. Team 2992 actively reaches out to underserved and underrepresented communities, and our recruiting efforts are conscious of the unique challenges these groups face in gaining access to STEM. Our annual robotics and science camps are extended at free and reduced costs towards financially challenged families, and financial aid is extended to team members for the costs associated with membership and competitions.

1.5 – Membership and Mentorship

Student Membership is available to any Mandeville High School student. There are currently about 25 student members on the team who contribute to the team in a wide range of capacities.  Membership dues are only $60 and go towards the cost of team uniforms for the member.

Our team is lucky to have the support of about 10 mentors with experience in a range of fields, including engineering, computer science, and graphic design. Mentorship is open to any adult who upholds the FIRST Core Values. Alumni are encouraged to come back and mentor the team to pass on their knowledge to the newer students on the team.

1.6 – Leadership (See org chart in appendix)

Team 2992 is proud to be student-led: decision-making responsibility is given to the student officers to develop project management and teamwork skills and foster student confidence. A full list of officer qualifications and responsibilities can be found in the team handbook. Student officers serve one-year terms.

 There are two types of officers for Team 2992 – Elected Officers and Appointed Officers. There are seven elected positions, forming an Executive Council: President, 2 Build Captains, Outreach Captain, Fundraising Captain, Media Captain, and Secretary/Treasurer. These captains are elected after the FRC competition season by all due-paying members with at least 1 year of team experience.

 There are also 5 Appointed Officers: CAD Lead, Code Lead, Shop Manager/Quartermaster, Spirit Lead, and Scouting Lead. These Appointed Officers are chosen by the group of nonparent mentors shortly after the elected positions are chosen. 

Section 2 – Community Impact

2.1 – Outreach

Team 2992 is very passionate about our involvement in our local and state communities. We do more than 20 robot demos and STEM booths each year, including:

After hurricane Ida devastated the south Louisiana community, we took part in cleanup and restoration efforts at our school.

 We also promoted and helped run our school’s Thanksgiving food drive, with thousands of food items donated.

Finally, we 3D printed over 100 hall passes to give to teachers for the holiday season and to create STEM interest.

Through these efforts, we have inspired thousands of students and shown them just how cool robotics can be. We have also raised awareness for FIRST, connecting interested students to FIRST teams in their area and providing resources to start a team if one doesn’t exist yet.

2.2 – STEM Camps

The students of our team organize and run robotics and science-themed summer camps and day camps for over 100 children each year. Children engage in fun science and STEM experiments, or build, program, and compete with Lego EV3 robotics kits. Kids often come back every year until they age out, and one student loved our camps so much that he went on to become our current Build Captain!

Our camp program selection was expanded to include a science camp because children needed intellectual stimulation in the absence of traditional teaching due to COVID-19. We have also expanded our camp initiative to hosting free robotics day camps at Pelican Park 4 times per year. Our camps often run out of spots and are used as a model for other FIRST teams.

2.3 – STEM Advocacy

Local – Our team engages with our local government through school board demos and media appearances to promote STEM education. We host an annual Media Night for government officials, local businesses, students and teachers, sponsors, and media organizations to advocate for the importance of STEM program access for all demographics. 

State – Our team participates in the Louisiana Festival de Robotique, an annual robotics event at our state capitol to meet with state legislators and advocate for expanded STEM education across our state. We are happy to say that as a result of the event, our state legislature passed Act 392 of SB 225, which created the LaSTEM advisory council to oversee the equitable expansion of STEM programs across the state!

National – In the summer of 2020, our team members virtually participated in the Student Association for STEM Advocacy’s National Advocacy Conference (SASA NAC). We met with the offices of US Senators Kennedy and Cassidy and US Representative Scalise and advocated for the increase of ESSA Title IV Part A Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants. These funds support well-rounded education (including STEM programs like FIRST) and expansion of technology in schools, with an emphasis in helping underserved communities. As of February 2022, this program will be funded at $1.3 Billion for FY22, an increase of 85 million dollars from the previous year! 

2.4 – Supporting FIRST

FLL: Our team is proud of our contributions towards supporting local FLL teams. We have helped start numerous FLL teams, including teams at Madisonville Jr. High, Mandeville Jr. High, and Tchefuncte Middle School. Even more importantly, we work to keep the teams going after they have been started – for example, when COVID restrictions allow, we send team members to mentor the Tchefuncte team twice per week.

FTC: A major recipient of our support is FTC team Dark Matter 14374. Our team continues to provide mentorship over 6 years after their founding, helping them win the Louisiana Inspire Award and qualify for Worlds multiple times. When their team had to transition from a school team to a community team with new coaches and mentors, we were instrumental in providing guidance and temporary practice space. Our team also provides volunteers for FTC competitions and scrimmages. Over 40 students have been members of Dark Matter, including 5 of our 11 current officers!

FRC: Through our Lifeboat Initiative, which started at the 2019 Arkansas Rock City regional, we have helped an average of 10 teams at each competition make bumpers and resolve mechanical, electrical, and programming issues so they can pass inspection and compete with their robots. We have also provided guidance and tool access to local FRC teams, such as 8118 and 3991. Finally, our lead mentor is active on the FRC forum Chief Delphi, allowing our team to provide resources and tips to teams around the world.

Section 3 – Financial Summary

(See Budget and Sponsorship Info in Appendix)

3.1 – The Booster Club

A large portion of our team’s finances are handled by parent volunteers through our Booster Club. The MHS Robotics Booster Club is classified as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, allowing for tax-deductible donations. The Club provides budgeting and purchasing guidance to help support the team’s educational and charitable projects, while also ensuring the team’s financial sustainability for the years to come. With the help of the booster club, the team can make purchases much quicker and with significantly fewer restrictions than purchases made through the school account. The executive board of the booster club has regular meetings and corresponds with student officers throughout the year to set budget allocations. The executive board presents the budget for the year at our annual team parent meeting to be approved by the majority of booster club members.

3.2 – Fundraising

Our team runs multiple annual fundraisers, many of which also serve as outreach to the community. While a large portion of our revenue does come from sponsorships, we highly value fundraising as a way to keep our team members active and engaged, benefit the community, and supplement the team’s budget. 

A long-running annual fundraising event is our book fair with Barnes & Noble, where we do robot demos at the entrance, run STEM activities for kids, and provide free gift wrapping outside the store. We receive about 8% of the proceeds from customers who mention us at the checkout line, as well as tips for gift wrapping. We also hold other events, such as selling award-winning barbeque meals and selling personalized laptop sleeves to students to protect their Chromebooks.

The most significant portion of our fundraising revenue comes from our STEM camps detailed in section 2.2. 

3.3 – Sponsorship

Our team’s annual budget is largely supported by our generous sponsors. Our team works to maintain a strong relationship with our sponsors, as well as reach out and expand our sponsorship base. Our annual Media Night is critical in recognizing our current sponsors, updating them on our achievements, and finding new sponsors. We are very thankful for our sponsors’ support in keeping our team thriving.

The following are some of our major sponsors, although unfortunately there is not enough space to highlight all of them:

Section 4 – Sustainability

4.1 – Staying engaged during the COVID pandemic

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the FIRST season was canceled, which had a devastating effect on the well-being of many FIRST teams. Nevertheless, our team worked hard to continue our programs in innovative, safe ways. We participated in multiple virtual challenges, which kept our team engaged and benefited the community.

FRC Game Design Challenge

The FRC Game Design Challenge was a virtual challenge offered by FIRST, where teams could design their own FRC game. Our team designed Volcanic Panic, a game where robots assembled chains of magnetic links and traversed monkey bars in the endgame. We won our division’s Designer’s Award and advanced to compete in the semifinalist round.

  Game Manual                                                                                                     Game Video

ChezyCode

The Cheesy Poofs hosted the ChezyCode programming challenge over the summer of 2020 where teams could submit programs that would benefit the community. Our team created a free phone app called Collabicate, which enabled groups of people, including FIRST teams, to collaborate on projects virtually. The Collabocate app received the 2nd place award and a $75 prize from The Cheesy Poofs.

Onshape’s Robots to the Rescue challenge

The Onshape Robots to the Rescue challenge asked teams to CAD (Computer-Aided Design) a robot to solve a real-world problem related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our team, in collaboration with FTC team Dark Matter 14374, designed a robot to deliver groceries from a van to people’s doorstep. This would allow elderly and immunocompromised people to receive groceries without taking a risky outing to the grocery store. We received 12th place, the Down to Details award, and a $100 scholarship for our work.

4.2 – SWOT Analysis (See appendix)

The SWOT analysis was used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats to our team. The strengths and weaknesses refer to internal factors of our team. The opportunities and threats refer to external factors our team may encounter. The items listed are in no particular order. 

4.3 – Risk Analysis and Action Plan

One of the most important factors in maintaining a successful team is actively identifying your weaknesses and how you can improve on them. The team leadership identifies these weaknesses in a variety of ways, including the SWOT analysis, frequent officer meetings, and anonymous team member feedback forms. We have identified one risk as clearly the most pressing – a decline in membership.

Between 2017 and 2020, we consistently had between 35 and 45 active members on the team. Recently, however, this has dropped to about 25 members. Former recruiting methods such as the club expo and t-shirt cannon demos were halted due to COVID, multiple seniors graduated, and virtual competitions were not as appealing to new recruits, which decreased new student retention rates. In addition, our former “feeder” team FTC Dark Matter, as well as our school, have both shifted in new student policy, which has significantly decreased the number of Dark Matter students who go on to join our team. This loss of new membership has hindered our ability to work on multiple tasks simultaneously and has led to difficulty finding student leaders for some roles. 

This year, our team leadership has worked tirelessly to respond to this challenge by creating and expanding multiple recruiting initiatives, including:

  1. Pizza and Robots night 
    1. The students at our school are invited to our shop for robot demos, shop tours, meeting the members, and pizza
  2. New Media Content (see appendix)
    1. Active creation of new media content, including:
      1. Promotional recruiting videos
      2. Robot reveal videos
      3. First Updates Now (FUN) Behind the Bumpers interviews
    2. An active presence on social media
      1. Foster student engagement of Instagram
      2. Formation of team TikTok account
  3. Spreading the word at our school
    1. Multiple flyers and robotics presentations at our school’s engineering and science classes
    2. 3D-Printed Hall Passes given to all teachers as a Christmas gift with “Mandeville Robotics” engraved to raise STEM interest
  4. Media Night
    1. Spread the word about our team and STEM
    2. Invite students and teachers
  5. Robotics and Science themed summer and holiday camps
  6. Internal improvements
    1. Expanded technical equipment available to attract technical members
    2. Emphasizing the importance of business, communications, and art subteams
    3. Engaging with new members to get them invested with the team

Through these initiatives, and with the easing of COVID restrictions, we believe that team membership will bounce back to historical levels. In fact, these initiatives have already led to a marked increase in membership.

4.4 – Future Plans

Despite being canceled last year due to COVID, our plan this year is to host our first Northshore Knockout offseason event this summer. This event supports the FIRST community by providing an opportunity for local teams to compete at a low cost and get new students interested during the summer. The event will be hosted at Mandeville High School on June 24th and 25th. We are in the process of securing a title sponsor, which will ensure the event is financially sustainable for the years to come. 

We are currently in the developmental stages of organizing and creating a STEM space at our school. Our goal is to reach and inspire students who are not able to get involved with STEM in the traditional ways, and we believe a free STEM lab would be a great way to achieve this goal.

Our team plans to advocate for, fund, build, and supervise the usage of this STEM space. This accessible and open room would contain a variety of technology, including computers for CAD and programming, 3D Printers, and a variety of traditional shop equipment. Giving the more than 2,000 students at our school access to this equipment would promote STEM awareness and give students firsthand experience with the technology our team works with. 

While the plan certainly is ambitious, we are confident that it is attainable. Our school sponsor is currently in the finalist stage of being selected for a $15,000 science grant, which would be used towards funding this room. In addition, our scho0l recently completed construction of a massive new wing, so classroom space is plentiful and we could relatively easily get access to an unused room.

Appendix

SWOT Analysis

Strengths (Internal and Helpful) 
FinancialsLarge budgetSignificant annual carry-overA consistent group of sponsorsParentsA large group of parent mentorsDedicated parent booster club to oversee financesHappy to provide transportation/carpoolingEquipmentAdvanced machinery – CNC, 3d Printers, etc.Large tool and part inventorySTEM AdvocacyParticipate in STEM National Advocacy Conference (SASA NAC)Local Gov. at Media NightPresentations at school board and city council meetingsFestival de Robotique at the state capitalReputationHistory of increasing successes 2017-today
Opportunities (External and Helpful)
Host Northshore Knockout offseason eventCanceled last year due to Delta variantTitle sponsor likely secured for next yearLocal FIRST growthFTC and FLL program expansionIncreased presence of FIRST in the communityManufacturing process innovationDecreasing cost of advanced machineryFree cloud-based CAD allows collaboration

SWOT Analysis

Weaknesses (Internal and Harmful)
Transitions in leadershipNeed more documentation and training for new leadersTrouble filling some roles – see Risk Analysis and Action Plan       2.  SpiritNo current Spirit CaptainInconsistent/unclear team uniformMultiple shirts with the old logo      3.  CommunicationToo many communication channelsPitWorn out and bulkyShop DisorganizationUnclear organization systemMembers are not sufficiently motivated to clean their area
Threats (External and Harmful)
Continued Shop AccessOur shop is lent to us by the city public works departmentChanging Public Works Director every 4 or 8 yearsCOVIDNew surge/new restrictionsDifficulty traveling out of state for competitionDifficulty recruiting – See Risk Analysis and Action PlanOutside commitmentsSports and clubs that demand members’ timeLoss of studentsSee Risk Analysis and Action PlanLoss of mentorsNo clear successor to lead mentor

2021-2022 Organizational Chart

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WE BUILD ROBOTS AND SO MUCH MORE!

© 2022 Mandeville Robotics. All Rights Reserved.

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