Team Fusion 364| 5-Year Plan

5 Year Plan

The dream of Team Fusion is for every student to know the joy and empowerment of being involved with a FIRST Robotics team. Our mission is to inspire the next generation of problem-solvers and to instill in today’s youth the desire and ability to solve the challenges facing our world for the betterment of mankind. Through an extensive outreach system, we take to heart that awe must return to our community, state, nation, and world that we have been so graciously given. Our goal is to infect all with “Fusion Fever” through the unique “coopertition” environment that is only found in FIRST.

Our Five-Year Plan:

1. Make in-person contact with every school district in Mississippi. Explain what FIRST has done in the Gulfport School District and what the possibilities are in their schools.

2. Create a networking system to assist exiting team members in contacting local teams to mentor and assist located around the universities they plan to attend. This will assist students in establishing relationships with other teams and extending Team Fusion’s resources to all.

3. Start an off-season (summer) robotics competition. This would be sponsored by Stennis Space Center and held in the Gulfport area or at Stennis. All teams from Mississippi would be invited, then additional teams from Louisiana and Alabama, followed by other teams from around the country. This would provide an excellent opportunity for collaboration and sharing of ideas and knowledge.

4. Increase parent involvement with Team Fusion ”Pride of Ownership” in the team. Get Parents to more fully realize the benefits of their child being on Team Fusion. On-boarding via veteran parent mentors.

5. Establish a Gulfport Robotics facility. This could be used by all teams in the local area for training and robot fabrication. It would be equipped by donations from local businesses.

6. Revitalize the Mississippi Robotics Consortium. It will be an information clearinghouse for all teams within the state. Hold a yearly meeting with lectures and seminars in conjunction with the off-season robotics competition. (This was already in existence prior to Hurricane Katrina).

7. In association with the Mississippi Robotics Consortium, create a single, state-wide fundraiser with proceeds going to fund new teams and sustain veteran teams in financial distress.

8. Challenge our team engineers to use new technologies to encourage our students to “think outside the box. Observe technologies used by other teams at regional, championship, and off-season events for possible inclusion in Team Fusion.

9. Use our engineers and parents to increase our “sphere of influence” within the region. Get more interest from employers and coworkers by getting them involved as FIRST mentors on Team Fusion and other teams.

10. Continue to mentor teams both in the Mississippi region and around the world. Cultivate international contacts through mentors and engineers to entice the development of additional FIRST teams abroad.

11. Use the FIRST program as the model for Mississippi’s High School Redesign STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) career pathway.

12. Continue the outreach programs of Robotics in Community Education, Summer Technology and Robotics, and our annual VEX tournament.

13. Continue the implementation of the VEX Education Programs with Elementary and Middle Schools with at-risk students.

14. Expand our program of providing funding for Advanced Placement tests to Low-Income students.

15. Leverage our existing relationships with business and industry to add additional funding for the VEX teams in district schools located in areas of need.

16. Continue to encourage local, state, and national politicians to attend FIRST events so that a true paradigm shift in thinking towards celebrating Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics becomes the prevalent mindset.

17. Continue to share our exemplary fundraising model with all existing and future FIRST teams.