2022-2023 Outreach

During the Mills High School Open House event in March, we were able to have the Makerspace open for parents and students to visit! As the largest club on campus, our team’s Makerspace opened up to allow people to learn about the team, allowing us to recruit and interact with future members. This event not only gives our team the opportunity to advertise ourselves, but also lets team members describe their own experiences on the team.

We were invited to participate in the WRRF Conference in Santa Clara University to teach other FRC teams about imagery. We created the “Beautiful Brandards by the Boba Bots” workshop to show other teams how to create a brand that fits their team vision and apply this image to their merchandise, social media, and even robot design. Attendees from seven different teams were encouraged to participate in branding-themed games and activities to learn about the importance of imagery through creating fun and recognizable brands. 

To introduce the incoming freshmen to the campus and school organizations, Mills High School holds an annual “8th Grade Night,” giving 8th graders from local middle schools a glimpse of student life at Mills. Eighth-graders and their families are first welcomed to the auditorium, where student representatives advertise their respective sports and clubs. Service commissioners walked parents and incoming students around the campus, introducing them to the various parts of the campus. As the largest club on campus, our team’s Makerspace opened up to allow people to learn about the team, allowing us to recruit and interact with future members. This event not only gives our team the opportunity to advertise ourselves, but also lets team members describe their own experiences on the team.

The Boba Bots were invited to set up a booth at the annual Millbrae Art and Wine Festival. Members helped sell wine and beer glasses, while promoting the team. We displayed our robot and sold team merchandise (buttons, stickers, t-shirts). Whether passerbyers came by to buy glasses or look at our merchandise, almost all customer interactions ended with questions about the robot or our team. Little kids were curious about our robot’s function, while adults and elders were more curious about our team events. We even ran into alumni and other teams, including Burlingame Robotics, who stopped by to see the robot!

On November 19th, we participated in a friendly competition and team bonding event with Galileo High School’s robotics team. Both teams worked to set up and compete using various obstacles from the 2021 Infinite Recharge At Home Challenges, allowing members from both the Boba Bots and Galileo Robotics to become acquainted and build relationships between teams. Aside from competing, members from both teams also participated in bonding activities, which helped to better welcome Galileo into the Boba Bots community. participated in bonding activities These outreach events have allowed the Boba Bots to build not just people, but the community and relationships overall. 

Every year Mills holds a club fair, giving various clubs a chance to advertise their purpose and function to students. We make sure to put on a good show, busting out the banners, the tools, and most importantly, our robot. Bringing out Ghost-TEA always makes a big impact on other students. I’d say this is one of the biggest attractors of newcomers; seeing a functioning robot in the middle of high school never fails to draw interest. This fair is especially important in attracting incoming freshmen to our team.

This year, our team participated in the annual Bulldog Bash at Taylor Middle school. As part of the event, we showcased our previous season’s competition robot, Ghost-TEA, to students and parents, even allowing them to interact with the robot and sparking interest in future members as well as providing a general geist of how our robot works. Additionally, members handed out fliers to to inform those interested in learning about the club and stickers to promote branding.