Business Plan

2018

Fightin’ Robotic Owls

Team 5401
 Table of Contents
1. MISSION STATEMENT 2

2. TEAM ORIGIN 3

3. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE 4

4. RELATIONSHIPS 5
4.1 TEAM MEMBERS 5
4.2 MENTORS 5
4.3 SPONSORS & COMMUNITY 5

5. DEPLOYMENT OF RESOURCES 6
5.1 ROBOSCIENCES FLL OUTREACH 6
5.2 STRUBLE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STEM CLUB 6
5.3 MIDDLE SCHOOL SUMMER CAMP 6
5.4 TEAM YEAR-ROUND MEETINGS 6

6. FUTURE PLANS 7
6.1 SCHOLARSHIPS 7
6.2 FLL OUTREACH 7
6.3 FRC OUTREACH 7
6.4 EITC FUNDING 7
6.5 COLLEGE CREDITS 7

7. FINANCIAL STATEMENT/FUNDRAISING PLAN 8

7.1 MAJOR FUNDRAISERS 8
7.2 SMALL FUNDRAISERS 8
7.3 SPONSORSHIPS 8
7.4 TEAM-STORE 8

8. RISK ANALYSIS 9
8.1 SWOT ANALYSIS 9
8.2 TRANSITION OF KNOWLEDGE 9
8.3 SPONSORSHIP DIVERSITY 9
8.4 LACK OF COMMUNICATION OF TEAM VISION 9

9. OTHER CONSIDERATIONS 10
9.1 TEAM OUTREACH: AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR SUICIDE PREVENTION 10

10. MEDIA 11

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1. Mission Statement
• We enhance students’ interest in STEM and business fields by engaging
them with experienced mentors that challenge them with real world
situations that build character and foster a lifelong appreciation for
teamwork.
• We believe that everyone is welcome on this team, no matter their ability
or interest they can find it in something we do.
• We are not an after school club. We are a professional organization and
competitive sport, preparing the next generation of engineers,
entrepreneurs and leaders.
• We choose to be a self-funded team so we aren’t a strain on the school
district’s financial resources. Additionally, we collect no dues from team
members because, as a Title 1 School, we do not want financial
constraints limiting participation.
• We are committed to promoting and supporting STEM education at all
levels both in our school district and in our community as a whole.
• We participate in community service and outreach to show our team
spirit, introduce others to FIRST, and give back to the community that
supports us.
• We will grow, mentor, and sustain a family of FIRST teams at all levels
throughout Bucks County.

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2. Team Origin
In 2013, Bensalem Township HS began plans for a multi-million dollar
renovation that would include a new STEM Academy. To enhance this STEM
Academy and provide students a well-rounded, hands-on STEM education,
Bensalem Township School Board Member Kevin McKay sought to start a FIRST
Robotics Team. In 2014 the team was founded with 19 students and only three
mentors.
Initially we faced many overwhelming challenges that would ultimately
help set us up for success in future years. Our lack of experience left us
unprepared and we spent the off season developing a plan to tackle the
challenges faced by a lack of mentors, money, and students. Inspired by
winning the Rookie Inspiration Award, we were further motivated to keep
working towards our goal of enhancing STEM education at the high school and
beyond.
Over the past three years, we experienced a steady growth of both
students and mentors with a 190% increase in students and 230% increase in
mentors. We also won our way into World Championships twice and began to
actively promote STEM education in our district by financially supporting our
middle school SeaPerch team and by hosting a free middle school summer
camp. Our proudest accomplishment to date is winning the Engineering
Inspiration Award in 2017 for the innovative way we worked with William Tennent
HS to start an FRC team there.
During the last four years we have been fortunate enough to experience
life changing opportunities and also deal with heartbreaking events but through
it all we came together as a family and supported each other.

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3. Organizational Structure
Team 5401’s Student Leadership Team (SLT) includes four leaders; Program
Manager, Non-Technical Lead, Chief Engineer, and Chief Safety Engineer and
each of these roles serves their own purpose.
Our Program Manager organizes many of the logistical tasks that deal
with the team as a whole. This includes organizing our team members’
information in the team database, coordinating information across sub-teams,
and mediating resource allocations between technical sub-teams.
Our Non-Technical Lead combines the roles of an outreach coordinator
and business manager. Their responsibilities include organizing the submission for
the Entrepreneurship Award, helping with the coordination of outreach events,
and keeping track of the teams overall financials.
Our Chief Engineer is the leader of the technical side of the team and
their role is to coordinate all of technical sub-teams and ensure each that each
of them is on schedule and on task.
Our Chief Safety Engineer is responsible for overseeing that the team’s
safety program is carried out. Their role is to work with the safety committee to
make sure everyone receives the proper safety training, to address and fix all
safety concerns of the team, and to update our safety program as necessary.

Team 5401

Kevin McKay James Kane

Lead Mentor Program Manager

Engineering Safety Non-Technical

Andy Kelly Dennis Katherine

Kady Dennis
Windhausen Chief Engineer
Chief Safety Matveykina
Lead Mentor Engineer Non-Technical Lead

Ellen Garfield Viginia McKay

Assembly Manufacturing Design Programming
Safety Mentor Lead Mentor

Natalie Ralston Kady Dennis Joseph McGuire Jason Liu

Captain Captain Lead Designer Lead FROgrammer

Steve Rosenberg Jim Hawk Josh Luther Kevin McKay

Mentor Mentor Mentor Mentor

Andy
Dan Walker Jordan Chazin
Mentor
Windhausen Mentor
Mentor

Devin Bombay
Mentor

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4. Relationships
4.1 Team Members
• Provide team members a well-rounded, hands-on STEM Education and
an opportunity for them to develop problem-solving skills, as well as
practice critical thinking and logical reasoning.
• Offer them annual training via the Travis Manion Foundation Character
Does Matter program which, through day-long team-building
exercises, discussions, and experiential learning challenges, develops
character and leadership skills. This past year, we invited members
Team 2607 and Team 6808 to join us.
• We maintain a family-like atmosphere where everyone is valued,
respected, and appreciated.
4.2 Mentors
• Students educate mentors because there’s always new ways to
implement what you know.
• Retain mentors by actively recruiting new ones because many hands
make light work.
• Students inspire mentors by having “ah-ha moments” where they figure
out what they love and want to major in college or do as a vocation or
career.
4.3 Sponsors & Community
• Invite sponsors and community members to Demo Night to educate
them about the robot and increase community interest in the team.
• Participate in community events, such as the largest community event
in Bensalem, the annual Fall Festival.
• We educate and inspire our community by offering a free middle
school summer camp that teaches students the basic fundamentals of
building and designing a robot.

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5. Deployment of Resources
5.1 RoboSciences FLL Outreach
During the 2017 FLL season we sent students and mentors to assist
RoboSciences, a Bensalem based FLL team, on a weekly basis. They
helped the team understand game strategy & analysis, robot
assembly, coding, and much more.
5.2 Struble Elementary School STEM Club
We met with the Struble STEM Club on a weekly basis to familiarize
them with the basics of robot building through littleBits robot kits. We
also helped them build an FLL Hydro Dynamics robot to get them
comfortable with the FLL program.
5.3 Middle School Summer Camp
In an effort to spread FIRST’s mission & core values in Bucks County,
we host a free middle school summer camp. For the first half of the
camp, they follow a VEX curriculum and are taught the basics of
building and programming VEX robotics. For the second half they
design and build their own VEX robots to compete in a mini FRC
competition, complete with judged awards. Our goal is to get
students excited about STEM so they pursue it in HS and later in life.
5.4 Team Year-Round Meetings
With the hectic six week build season, we don’t have time to start
teaching technical skills at the start of the six weeks so we meet
year round and do off season projects that allows to develop
technical skills so that we’re ready for build season. Additionally,
meeting year round allows us to have a career path for our team
members to develop technical skills in a given area so that by the
time they are seniors, they are able to lead an entire area of the
team with minimal guidance from a mentor.

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6. Future Plans
6.1 Scholarships
Our goal is to have FIRST Scholarship money received by students
on this team be double the total amount of our sponsorship funds
received.
Our strategy is to invite school guidance counselors and
representatives from local colleges to attend a team meeting
where they go over the college admission process and the FIRST
Scholarship database.
6.2 FLL Outreach
Our goal is to establish FLL teams at our elementary schools in
Bensalem.
Our strategy is to first turn Struble Elementary School’s STEM club,
who we have been mentoring, into an official FLL team.
6.3 FRC Outreach
Our goal is to assist at least two high schools in Lower Bucks County
with starting their own FRC team.
Our strategy is to take a group of students and teachers from a
local high school and have them join our team. The following year,
with continued help and support from us, they will form a veteran
core to a unique rookie team.
6.4 EITC Funding
Our goal is to increase the amount of sponsorship dollars we receive
by participating in Pennsylvania’s Educational Improvement Tax
Credit Program.
Our strategy is to invite local businesses to become EITC donors by
informing them they can receive a 75% tax credit for a 1-year
donation commitment and up to a 90% tax credit for a 2-year
donation commitment.
6.5 College Credits
Our goal is to offer team members colleges credits for their
participation in FIRST Robotics.
Our strategy is to partner with Bucks County Community College to
turn aspects of FIRST Robotics into credit earning college courses.

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7. Financial Statement/Fundraising Plan
7.1 Major fundraisers
• Annual Designer Handbag Bingo
7.2 Small fundraisers
• Hold a variety of smaller fundraisers throughout the year. Examples
include: Dine to Donate nights at local restaurants, 31 Days of 31
Raffles, Boscov’s coupon sales, and other small fundraisers.
7.3 Sponsorships
• Retain the existing sponsors we have while at the same time; continue
to bring in new sponsors—both local small businesses and large
corporations.
• Seek out both monetary as well as in-kind sponsorships. Example: One
of our team-level sponsors, OldSkillz Graffik-Garmentz, is an in-kind
sponsor that donates over $3,000 worth of apparel to the team, which
includes our team t-shirts and hoodies.
• Recruit sponsors that share our mission of spreading FIRST in Bucks
County so that the FRC teams we establish start off their rookie year
with some financial assistance. Example: We helped established Team
6808 at William Tennent HS and shared two sponsors with them, Boeing
and DoD STEM, helping them start their rookie season off with $5,000-
fully covering their registration fees.
7.4 Team-Store
• Have an online store on the team website where parents and fans can
purchase team branded apparel and merchandise.
• Continue the growth of our team store by increasing the variety of
products offered so they appeal to both fans of the team and fans of
FIRST in general. This is an easy, no overhead, year-round revenue
generator for the team.

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8. Risk Analysis
8.1 SWOT Analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
• Member dedication • Transition of knowledge
• Other schools seeking out • Lack of focus
our team for STEM curriculum • Lack of sponsorship diversity
advice • Not recruiting enough non-
• Inclusive technical members
• Provide academic support • Lack of communication
for students
Opportunities Threats
• Local districts eager to • Decline in mentors
partner with us to start FRC • No faculty sponsor
teams • Growth rate not consistent
• Local elementary school with graduation rate
eager to start FLL teams
8.2 Transition of Knowledge
• The knowledge of every critical team function and process must be
passed down.
• Establish a system where current Student Leadership Team and subject
matter experts pass down knowledge to rookies and underclassmen.
8.3 Sponsorship Diversity
• We currently solicit less than 10% of the businesses in our town and we
want to increase that to 25%. We also want to become less dependent
on our large corporate sponsors so that in that the event we lose one,
we have a solid core of local sponsors we can rely on. Additionally,
having more local sponsors reinforces our relationship with our local
community.
8.4 Lack of Communication of Team Vision
• Everyone on the team from the SLT to the newest rookie needs to
understand our team mission, our core values, and our goal of
becoming a chairman's team. We will start by including our mission
statement and core values at our annual rookie orientation.
Additionally, at every team meeting we will ask ourselves what have
we done in the past week and what are we doing this week towards
our goal of becoming a chairman’s team.

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9. Other Considerations
9.1 Team Outreach: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
Part of our team mission statement states, “We participate in
community service and outreach to show our team spirit, introduce
others to FIRST, and give back to the community that supports us.”
In honor of a teammate who tragically passed away last year, we
have decided to support the American Foundation for Suicide
Prevention (AFSP). AFSP is an organization that gives those affected
by suicide a nationwide community empowered by research,
education, and advocacy to take action against this leading
cause of death. We are supporting this organization by hosting an
Out of the Darkness Walk in May at Bensalem Township Central
Park. Up to 50% of the funds we raise at this walk will be put towards
AFSP programs in our local community, directly helping our friends
and neighbors affected by suicide. We realize that suicide not only
affects our community here in Bensalem, but also the FIRST
community as a whole. As a result, we will be personally inviting
every MAR team to join us in walking at the event and, through
social media, we will encourage all FIRST teams to participate
virtually by walking in their respective communities on the same
day.

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10. Media

Students Volunteering at our

Local Struble STEM Club Financial Statement

Students Developing Leadership

Local FLL Team We Mentored
Skills at Travis Manion Foundation

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