September 1st, 2022, marked the RoboRams annual new member drive which took place in Presentation Area F. This event included information about the team, department tours, and games. 

The meeting started out presenting the current officers: Cassie White, ‘23, as CEO (Chief Executive Officer), Jackson Mills, ‘23, as CFO (Chief Financial Officer), Joseph Jones, ‘25, as PRO (Public Relations Officer), Ryan Bendersky, ‘23, as EOO (Educational Outreach Officer), And Gabe Bishop, ‘23, as COO (Chief Operations Officer).

  How prepared and ready were they before the meeting and what are their goals for these new members?

“This coming season has a lot of promise with more new members than I’ve ever seen,” stated Bendersky, team officer, “…and a returning squad of highly experienced members following the team’s greatest season of all time last year.”

The RoboRams do in fact recognize their 2021-22 school year as their greatest season of all time. This is because they not only reached their all-time highest place in the Tallahassee event, the RoboRams also earned the Judges Award in their annual St. Louis competition in Chaifetz Arena.

Mr. Dustin Foster, Lead Mentor, mentioned the team’s “simple yet effective” strategy in last year’s competitions.

 These events are always great experiences for team members to compete and interact with other teams.

“FRC events are what we work and live for as RoboRams,” Bendersky expressed, “…it’s always an impactful experience full of great memories and amazing people to interact and compete with.”

But how does the team work towards prepping new members for these competitions?

White, team officer, answered, “All of the new members will go into an apprenticeship program that we do in every department to learn anything they want about any particular [aspect of the team].”

The RoboRams have one consistent mentor per department to assist respective department officer. This is all for the end goal of  teaching the new members everything there is to know about that department.

These departments range from 10-20 members; Foster mentioned that there are “A lot of new team members, which means a lot more work”.

“We have very few mentors and lots of excited new members!  This is a good problem to have;” Mrs. Karen Slous, Public Relations Mentor, pointed out, “However, if students don’t feel involved they tend to leave the team, so it’s up to the few mentors we have to keep everyone engaged and excited.”

With everything coming up and planned, new members will inevitably have a sense of excitement and readiness to get involved and active in the coming RoboRams season. This includes the team fundraisers that all members will take part in soon.

“The fall semester is our designated time for fundraising.” Slous mentioned, “We have a finance department that writes grants and completes donation applications.  We also host a doughnut sale as a prelude to our biggest fundraiser, the spaghetti dinner and silent auction.” 

The Spaghetti Dinner and Silent Auction is mentioned to commence October 28, 2022. The new members are sure to get a taste of what it is like to fundraise and will have a lot of fun. These funds will guarantee the team’s season events as the RoboRams move forward through the year.

“In conclusion, I see a bright future for the robotics team as we have doubled our members in one year.” Mills, team officer, exclaimed, “I feel that our cast of officers this year will be incredibly successful. With Joseph making the team look good to the public, Ryan showing our team to the world, Gabe making sure we work in a safe environment, myself making sure we have the funding to do it all, and Cassie running the show, I have no doubt that this year is the year of the RoboRams.”

This upcoming RoboRams season is going to have a lot to keep an eye on. The team’s preparation will be a learning curve for the new members but they are assured they will have fun and not regret this section of their lives.

All in all, the RoboRams team have their plates full with more new members than ever and a busy schedule of events. Even with the roadblocks, MV’s very own robotics team plans to rise to the challenge and have fun while making an impact.