Gator Motorsports Forum

This thread is intended to provide feedback on each event we host or attend so next year's team can learn from our experience. After an event, one of the event organizers should post a short update here so it's all in one place. If other team members want to provide feedback as well, that's great. This will allow the team to analyze which events/methods of recruiting seem more effective than others. It will also allow the team to plan for the events better the following year. Please organize your replies like this:

Subject Heading: Event Name

Event Description: i.e. ESWAMP

Event Date: i.e. Saturday August 29th

Event Location: Lake Waulberg

Team Resources Needed: baja car, 3 team members, ...

Feedback: Discuss what went well & what didn't. Did we need more members in attendence? Were there a a lot of students at the event, other student organizations or any faculty? Should we bring a tent or program fliers next time? An interested student signup sheet? A notebook with photos of the formula project and some of the parts we design and manufacture for it? Etc.

Thanks.

Event Description: Various tabling events to advertise our program to new students.

Event Date:
Eswamp - Aug 28th - lake Wauburg
New Student Welcome Reception - Aug 30th - Reitz Grand Ballroom
Ideal Organization Fair - Sept 9th - Outside Reitz
Honors Program Org. Fair - Sept 15th - Hume
BEC Society Night - Sept 27 - Reitz Ballroom


Event Location: see above

Team Resources Needed: We brought a newly made 2010-2011 formula poster, SAE momentum magazines, FSAE programs, Flyers for upcoming General body meeting and New Student Shop Day, postcards for give aways, example machined piece/paper weight, list serve sign up, laptop with looping videos (some events), the formula car and design boards (only the New Student Welcome Reception.) 2-6 members depending on size of event.

Feedback: Tabling is chance for our members to talk about what they love doing, and hopefully get the program's name out there. Events focused on engineering students have the best results, but at any event you talk to 100s of kids and only a few stick. The college of Engineering events are not only important for recruitment but also to make the college like us. The car/design boards are flashy and make us look legit, good for big events.

Event Description: 1 Hour long meeting giving overview of program via power point, videos, personal testimonials etc.

Event Date: Thursday Sept 9th

Event Location: Little Hall 109

Team Resources Needed: President, Capitan, one ex-freshman, hopefully alot of interested students, agendas to hand out, list serve sign up, flyers on New Student Shop Day, and Prezi!!!!

Feedback: Sooo much better than General Body Meetings when I 1st joined eboard. I used prezi to make a totally new presentation, got a lot of compliments on it. You can see it here: http://prezi.com/scr7ir5ojsvg/gms-talk/ The only thing that did not go well was letting the system leader speak about what they do, took FOREVER. Instead just let the captain introduce them.

Event Description: New Student Shop Day (NSSD) is a day for new members to come into the shop and learn about the SAE program. More specifically, they learned about the various machines that are used to manufacture parts, more about the formula car, how we design and FEA, and composites.

Event Date: Thursday, September 16, 2010. 7 pm

Event Location: The Shop

Team Resources: Everyone needed to be at the shop to man stations.

Feedback: The event was planned for about 60-90 people. It ended up being about 30-40 people which led to a problem of too many stations. I think the best solution to this is to have a backup plan, taking into account the number of people. The event overall did flow well, with the extra station it was very easy to rotate the groups around 1 by 1, rather than having all groups moving at one time. I think for next time (Spring) I'll make sure to have an empty station because that worked out very well to keep groups together.

I think the small turn out of people is strange, we advertised this event at every tabling event that we had (3 before NSSD). There were also flyers around campus, facebook, twitter,and mass email sent out to the listserv, so I don't know how to get more people to come out to NSSD. If anyone has any comments towards how to get more people to show up, please post a comment or let me know personally.

As far as the stations went, they are listed below with comments.

CNC - Bill's demo was excellent and kept the group entertained for about 5 minutes. It was an engaging demo and Bill did a good job.

Design/FEA/Computers - Sean was in charge of this station. To me it seemed pretty interesting to follow a desgin through testing and come back to your design. I can't say if some of the new students were interested, but it seemed like they were engaged.

Formula - According to Jeff this is the worst station. I don't really have an opinion, to me asking the captain questions is always important. Yet maybe new members are nervous, therefore Jeff spends 5 minutes lecturing instead of answering questions. Despite what Jeff says, each time I asked this station to move on, I always seemed to be interrupting something.

Composites - Another station that was said to be boring. I'll have to talk to Hilary and Eddie to see how we can make it better or eliminate it.

Lathe - Mixed feelings about this station. I think it's an important part of the shop and we definitely work a lot on the lathe so seeing it before having to use it can be useful to some people. Yet there might not be a lot to say about the lathe, let alone lecture for 5 minutes on it.

Mill - Eddie was on the mill, I think we were a little shorthanded as far as that station went. Eddie was all alone trying to work on a part and engage new students. I find that very difficult and there should be someone assigned before the event to cover whatever circumstance that may prevent someone from not being in their station.

On my end, I could've been more specific to station people as to what they should do and WHERE they should be. It wasn't a planning issue, just a communication issue. Definitely, make sure that everybody knows where they are, maybe even have them talk me through their speech. Finally, is to make sure we have parts AFTER new student shop day to make. I need to make sure I can get some members to commit to stay after NSSD to make parts with new students. I only had 3 students want to stay this time, but if we would have had say 10, we would not have been able to teach them all.

All in all, it was a good event. Everything did go smoothly. Just some minor details need better planning, and better communication between whoever plans the event (me) and the team.

Event Description: Powerpoint and Pizza provided by Procter & Gamble the night before career fair

Event Date: Tuesday, Sept 21 6:00-8:00pm

Event Location: FLI 50

Team Resources Needed: Classroom, flyers, email list servs

Feedback: Although P&G does not sponsor, with so many alumni at the company we still get roped into hosting info sessions. The info session was supposed to be in conjunction with ASME and SHPE but they both overbooked themselves; this left us with a larger room and not many people to fill it up. I made a facebook group, ordered the pizza, sent emails to our members, sent emails to the undergrad list serve, and did the talking to P&G. I asked ASME to make the flyers, mistake. New rule: no society does things to SAE standards, because we don't want their effort reflecting on us, do it ourselves. Overall it went well. It ran long, a little small, we had left over pizza. But P&G is so obsessed with hiring SAE members right that didn't matter. Its important to keep having this event because it keeps alumni who donate happy, and maybe one day we will brake through and get money from P&G.

Event Description: Immediately after the technical day of career fair each fall and spring semester, we hold an “Open House” for all the corporations that come to career fair. The representatives from each company come in to the shop to take a look at the heart of our program and discuss the program with members. This event serves as a great way to stay in contact with our recurring sponsors and to get potential new corporations to sponsor us.

Event Date: Wednesday September 22nd, 2010 from 15:00-17:00

Event Location: The Gator Motorsports Shop

Team Resources Needed: As many members as available (event intersects a lot of members’ class schedule), a clean GMS shop, formula car, snacks and drinks.

Feedback:

Set-up: Set up went as planned; there was a packet containing a sponsorship proposal, The Florida Engineer magazine, and a personalized thank-you letter provided for all companies in attendance. Additionally, GMS Coffee Mugs were given as gifts to anyone who came (and wanted them). Refreshments were provided by Tijuana Flats and Publix Supermarkets. Jason at Tijuana Flats donated 3 Chip-and-Dip platters, and Publix Supermarkets provided the team with a $30.00 gift card. The gift card was used to purchase all Pepsi-products for beverages (this included Pepsi’s Aquafina for water.)

Attendance: This event was advertised to about 100 companies that were attending the career fair with the intent of very, very few actually showing up. In attendance there were three (3) companies, Lockheed-Martin, Proctor & Gamble, and Schlumberger. There were about 10 GMS members in the shop for the duration of the event.

Event Details: The event went quite smoothly; the representatives came in to the shop around 16:00 and began conversing with the members immediately. I believe that every single representative wanted to sit in the car and have their picture taken, so of course the team was more than happy to let them take a seat in car #84. The pictures were later uploaded and tagged on our website. Everyone who came seemed to leave happy, and despite the low corporate attendance, the event served its purpose for maintaining contact with the sponsors.

Areas for Improvement:
-I am not quite sure how to accomplish this, but getting more corporations in the shop would be a definite improvement. Personalized invitations were sent out (as well as a reminder a few days before) a month in advance.

Event Description: PSM/Alstom spent an hour in the shop with us telling members about jobs/internships with PSM.

Event Date: Tuesday Sept 21st, 8pm-9pm

Event Location: The Shop

Team Resources Needed: Email, projector

Feedback:
Ashley worked with Alumni Adam Hart to set up the info session. Working with PSM was very casual and done through email and phone calls. They approached SAE about it and were very accommodating to find a free time.

As for the actual info-session, it ran pretty well. Most of the team cut their arrival very close since we had booked an info-session with P&G for the hour block just before the PSM info-session, so staggering such things would be a better idea in the future. Luckily we had a few guys in the shop to entertain them while everyone arrived. As far as the info-session went, it was fine. There were just core members present, but that's exactly what they asked for, so the lack of a 90-person crowd isn't a cause for concern. Afterwards the three PSM employees stayed for about half an hour to speak to the team and get to know us before career fair. I don't think there were any complaints on either PSM's or our students' parts. Now if only we could finagle them into taking us out to dinner again...

Event Description: Weekly Dinners out with the team. Allows us to keep people in the shop as well as have social events for new members.

Event Date: 6:30pm Every Wednesday


Event Location: Every week a different local restaurant different place (Moes, Mc Allister, Steamers, CiCi's, Burrito Brothers, The Gelato Company, etc)

Team Resources Needed: Cars to carpool with

Feedback: This tradition is good because it makes new members feel like they have a time they can come in the shop and get to know us plus its fun for current members. The only downsized we are out of the shop from 6:30-7:30pm every Wednesday.

A new addition this semester to team dinners was the idea of partnering with Gelato Company as a fundraiser. With an email and a little paper work it was set up that any purchase from a customer that mentioned SAE between 6pm-8pm would have 20% donated back to SAE. This was a good opportunity to get a small amount of cash while eating our normal dinner; too bad we can't make the team eat Gelato Company every week. Use heavier advertising to get more people to go to the fundraiser dinner. I plan on looking at other restaurants that do fundraisers and repeating in the further.

Event Description: A presentation of what sponsorship is, why we need it, and how we get it.

Event Date: Oct 11th

Event Location: The Gator Motorsports Shop

Team Resources Needed: Projector, Computer, Mike's Lab, New Members, Experienced Members

Feedback:

This event went as planned, although it took substantially less time than I thought it would. I first stressed the "why" of sponsorship and then the "how". Most of the new members that were consistently coming in the shop attended. I handed out a sponsorship tip sheet as well as the flowchart that is available in the sponsorship forum. An area for improvement would be to "act-out" a sponsorship call, or just ask hypothetical questions to get the new members thinking. Overall, directing the training by a flowchart and showing the materials available on the forums worked very well.

Event: A World in Motion

Event Date: November 17, 2010

Event Location: The Shop

Team Resources: Every volunteer that was willing to help we needed. Also, I went out and bought some M and Ms for the kids. The SAE International Toy Cars and the projector to present the lesson.

Feedback:

The event was well planned. I had a lesson plan and time outline at least a week before the actual date. Due to scheduling though, I had an exam the day of and during the time of the event which meant I wouldn't be able to see the event that I planned through. There was a problem with the size of the group and the age. During the email correspondence I mistakenly took the number of kids as the AGE of the kids and vice versa. Although the number of kids was still much more than anticipated (at least 25% more) and the fact that I had the age wrong didn't help. When the group entered the shop, there were a few moments of OH what do we do now?

In order to prevent this from happening again, emails should be read thoroughly (twice at least) and if a wide age is going to be present we should be better prepared to meet the needs of all them.

I also encountered the problem where none of the people that had volunteered had never participated in A World in Motion, therefore never worked with the cars. I think that was one of the worst problems and to remedy this there has to be a day dedicated to teaching the volunteers about the cars and the event. By teaching the volunteers, we would have to plan in advance and have all the volunteers ready at least three days prior. But this gives the advantage of a going through the schedule making sure everything is possible.

The SAE international toy cars need to be properly labeled and be put somewhere that anyone could find. I had trouble finding the cars and placing them in obscure locations so that they are out of the way was a problem. There should be at least 3 people that know where the cars are and because we have A World in Motion spread out throughout the year it is easy to forget.

Everything else went well, the lesson went well and the kids seem to have fun.