We were deeply saddened by the news that the 2019-2020 FIRST season had been suspended, but at our last Leadership Council meeting, conducted virtually on March 14, the conversation had an uplifting tone. Even though the suspension and social distancing measures connected to the COVID-19 outbreak meant big changes for our team and community, it also has provided us with the perfect opportunity to reflect on how we can improve our team over the next couple of months. This situation has challenged us to assess how we can effectively stay connected as a team and FIRST community while also following social distancing guidelines.
Meeting Structure. The closure of our workspace at CMU and recommendations not to gather in large groups made our traditional in-person meetings impossible. That didn’t stop us though! We’ve been meeting for Leadership Council and All Hands Meetings through the video chat platform, Zoom. Subteams have also been planning virtual meetings. For instance, the Design Team is holding CAD learning sessions, the electrical team held a debrief of the season, and our outreach leads organized planning sessions for the next FLL season.
Team Spirit. One of our biggest concerns was that the suspension of our in person activities would negatively affect our team morale. To keep spirits up, we encouraged our business and technical leads to keep in contact with their subteams and for all girls utilize our big/little sister program and reach out to their respective big/little. Additionally, one of our mentors created a 24/7 Zoom chat room so that we have a platform to hang out with each other. This resource has been utilized daily since its creation, and some girls even organized a 24 hour Zoom marathon as a team bonding event, which will feature mentor talks, a virtual band, friendship bracelet making, and other fun activities. We are hoping that initiatives like this will boost team spirit and bring everyone together!
Keeping in Contact With Our Community. We have also been working on ways that we can continue to spread our message virtually. All of our in person outreach has been cancelled until further notice, but we are working to move some events online. As directors of the FIRST Ladies program, we had originally planned to hold a Women in Stem Panel at the Greater Pittsburgh Regional. Luckily, we were able to move this event to Zoom, and on March 26 Greater Pittsburgh Regional teams and others interested in the FIRST community were invited to join us for a Q & A session with Aubrey Kalashian, a graduate student at CMU studying Robotics Systems Development, Brianna Watt, a Information Technologist at Aurora Innovation, Elizabeth Amato, a software engineer for Google, and Dr. Zeynep Temel, an Assistant Professor at the Robotics Institute at CMU. View the video of the webinar here.
We are also organizing a virtual meeting on April 4th for FRC teams who planned to attend the Greater Pittsburgh Regional during week 4. The purpose of this event is two-fold: to discuss the effect of COVID-19 closures on individual teams and the Greater Pittsburgh FIRST community as a whole, and to showcase the Infinite Recharge robots and all the hard work that we put in this year. All members of GPR teams and members of other FRC teams are welcome to attend, and for those who cannot, we are recording the meeting and making it public afterwards. Here’s the link to register for the virtual FRC event. Hope you can make it!
The Future. While there continues to be a lot of uncertainty concerning when we will begin meeting in person again, we are still optimistic about our summer offseason. Unfortunately, our 2020 Feiyue camp was cancelled, but we are still hoping to host a scrimmage, attend off season competitions, and support summer projects that will prepare us for next year.
Despite the interruption of the season and the unfortunate circumstances that led to its postponement, we are focusing on the bright side. We are excited about the prospect of strengthening our team and the community through our new initiatives and will continue to brainstorm ways to support and learn from each other!