Section 1. Business Plan Overview 1.1 Mission Statement Dawgma’s mission is to inspire the current community and the next generation to become leaders in STEM and related fields through efficient expertise, competitive collaboration and socially conscious outreach programs. 1.2 Executive Summary • Created in 2005 • Founded by Rich Kressly: Team Advisor; Winner of 2009 Regional Woodie Flowers Award • Chief Mentor: Bob Bellini; Lockheed Martin Engineer • 27 members • Located in Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA. Sponsored by Lockheed Martin, Lower Merion School District, Lower Merion Interschool Council • Services o Production of an FRC robot each winter. o Off-season we devote our time to training and outreach. • Sponsors o Receive most of our financial support from our school district o Receive additional monetary support from local donors o Lockheed Martin provides four engineers whose expertise has been 1 fundamental to our success. o Lockheed Martin also provides a grant that covers other team expenses • Team Growth o Totaled fifteen awards across three robotics programs o Created and developed extensive outreach program focused on exposing children to accessible and fun robotics . Helped create a Science Club at local elementary school, ran a three day robotics event with 36 fourth and fifth graders . Organized and ran 4 JrFLL expos in two years, 52 new teams a total of approximately 200 students participating . Paired up with team 365 for the Ulster project, brings together Protestant and Catholic students from Ireland with team building activities o Strong commitment to helping other teams at competition and during build season: Chief Delphi papers have been downloaded over 11,300 times o Traveled to Nation and State capitals to demonstrate effectiveness of robotics to legislators o 90% of alumni pursue STEM, 46% study engineering, and 18% study computer science • Future plans: o Continue to expand and reinforce relationships in the FIRST community o Create new outreach opportunities and encourage volunteerism, strengthening our image as a nonprofit organization o Encourage and foster passion and interest in STEM among students o Grow team numbers through interschool promotion and collaboration o Encourage Harriton High School students to participate in the team and get involved in FIRST o Expand the programming and CAD sub-teams o Continue to take every opportunity to spread FIRST’s message 2 Section 2. Market Analysis and Marketing Strategy 2.1 Industry Analysis FIRST robotics is a massive organization. There are 2,700 projected teams for 2013, composed of almost 60,000 high school students. The total operating expenses for FRC in 2012 was $34,754,397. According to the official FRC handbook, a team can compete for as little as $10,000. While our team budget exceeds the samples, they are still very useful tools in our planning. The two sample budgets below, also from the official FRC handbook, show the potential costs of an average team. Sample Budget: Teams attending one Local Regional Event Cost Items $5000 Registration for a regional competition, includes kit of parts and FIRST team support $2500 Additional parts and shop materials $300 Practice field components: $100 Robot cart (could be flat dolly constructed from leftover wood) $1000 Travel costs: bus transport to Regional for 3 days $300 T-shirts, trinkets & marketing materials $500 Post-season/Pre-Season events. Set aside money for participation. Besides being fun, they provide more experience for your team and possible press coverage. Total: $9,500 Sample Budget: Teams attending Two Events Local Regional ($7100) First event registration $5000 Food $2,100 14 team members - $50/person/day Second Regional ($12,050) Second event registration $4,000 Travel $3,850 14 students at $275 each Lodging $2,100 4 rooms, 3 nights - $100/room/night Food $2,100 14 team members - $50/person/day Materials ($1,200) Electronics $600 Speed controllers $350 Sensors $200 Controls $50 Operator interface controls and connections Construction ($1,740) Metal, etc. $250 Sprockets, chains, bearings, etc. $500 Wheels $140 Polycarbonate $50 3 Hardware $250 Signs $50 Practice field components $300 Shipping crate $200 Miscellaneous ($1,400) FIRST LEGO League $264 Sponsorship of a middle school team. Tools $300 Robot $100 T-shirts, trinkets & marketing materials $500 Off-season events $500 TOTAL EXPENSES $23,490 2.2 Target Market for Sponsorship The majority of financial sponsorship is targeted towards local businesses. Our school district provides most of our budget, but we also seek help from engineering companies in our area. This year we are sending out letters to approximately ten engineering based companies asking for support. We’ve also targeted larger engineering corporations in our area; specifically we’ve established a relationship with Lockheed Martin. 2.3 Target Market for Members Dawgma 1712 recruits members from the student body of Lower Merion High School. We try to target students who have already shown an interest in technology by either joining the school TSA (technology student association) chapter or by taking a Technology Education elective. Underclassmen are preferred recruits, but all grades are desired. We have employed a number of strategies for recruiting members, including posters, announcements in the school’s daily loudspeaker messages and activity fairs. However, we have found the most effective method for recruitment is simply word of mouth through current members. We encourage our members to wear their team shirts often in school and to speak with their peers about their experiences. Additionally, we have begun to reach out to other high school students who are not a part of Lower Merion in order to give them the opportunity to experience FIRST. Initially, these students were affiliated with other members and their families, but now we are reaching out to other high schools like Harriton as well. 2.4 Funding 2.4.1 Fundraising Dawgma participates in fundraising as part of the schools Technology and Engineering Club in conjunction with TSA. In the past, the team directly sold products such as candygrams, magnets, and Hexbugs. The team would also organize bake sales and contribute the proceeds to charities such as Engineers Without Borders. However, our 4 team has recently become self-sustainable, and so fundraising is no longer necessary to keep the team funded. Our team continues our contributions to charities as an element of our outreach efforts. 2.4.2. Donors In the past, every member of Dawgma was expected to hand out at least two Donor Forms to local businesses. Local donors have become aware of our team through our many appearances in our community and media. However, since our team is overall self-sustainable in recent years because of cost-cutting and sponsorship, local donors are no longer necessary to keep the team funded. 2.4.3. Sponsors Our district generously provides the majority of our sponsorship, but district policy does not allow us to have official sponsors. However, we consider Lockheed Martin to be a sponsor. Four of their engineers donate huge amounts of time and energy to assist the team. We also listed NASA as a sponsor in 2009 because we won a grant that allowed us to travel to the DC regional. 2.5 Advertisement/Promotion 2.5.1 Website Our primary promotion tool is our website. It includes a comprehensive history of our team, pictures, and even twitter updates of our progress. We also use a Youtube Channel to share video of build, competitive events, and promotional materials/spots. 2.5.2 Marketing/PR We use the excitement generated by our success in outreach and competition to appear in local and national media, including newspaper, TV news and websites. We have also used demos such as the Philadelphia Video Game Expo and the Franklin Institute Family Fun Day to not only showcase our robots, but also hand out information and promote our team. In 2009, the team captains had the opportunity to travel to Washington DC and promote FIRST to congressmen and senators, as well as participate in the Congressional Caucus on Robotics. Additionally, the school newspaper keeps track of the team’s activity and will run a news article about the team a few times each year. Individual team members spread information about the team through social networking and word of mouth, increasing the team’s notability on campus. Section 3.Services and Products 3.1 Services 3.1.1. VRC Team 5 In addition to FRC team 1712, Dawgma also includes a competitive VRC team. VRC (VEX robotics competition) teams are made up of 10 students or less, and use the VEX platform to play a game that changes annually. With a smaller and simpler team structure and robot, the VRC team provides Dawgma with a fantastic tool to train rookie members. 3.1.2. Community Efforts 3.1.2.1 Outreach Dawgma is extremely proud of its extensive community outreach efforts. Most efforts are centered around Dawgma’s outreach package: Portable Inspiration. Portable Inspiration (PI) utilizes the financially accessible and mechanically manageable VEX robotics platform. Eight ‘tumbler” robots make up the PI fleet, along with stations designed to educate younger students on the basics of simple machines, team work and robots in our world. PI has been implemented at a variety of events such as workshops with elementary school and autistic students and demonstrations at the Franklin Institute and the Philadelphia Video Game Expo. November 2009 was the second year that team members and mentors organized and ran two JrFLL Expos at regional elementary schools. In two years 52 teams and nearly 200 students ages 6-9 have become inspired FIRST participants, at least one FLL team and one high school robotics club has grown from it, and our team members learn leadership skills while giving back to the community in the process.