I am interested in volunteering to do some Outreach for our club. This event in Cheyenne seems like it might be fun. I would ask for another member or two to step forward and help hold down the table for me on the 19th of May. That is actually a really good date to have it, I can make up some flyers regarding MHM for the following weekend.
Having not done this before, a couple of questions arise:

1) What sort of "hands on" activity might be appropriate (easy, yet entertaining for up to 250 people)?
2)Providing door prizes also comes to mind. Any club members have ideas?

Additionally, taking up some of the recent threads on Outreach, I spoke to the HobbyTown onWadsworth in Westminster. I represented myself as both NCR and as my Charter School Mountain Phoenix Community School. This event serves two purposes: it is an outreach for NCR and my school is looking to increase enrollment.

The manager is willing to host with these kinds of requirements:
1) I pick a weekend that he can put onto his calendar.
2) I give him two weeks notice on the number of kids who have pre-registered in order for him to order sufficient kits from Estes.
3) His offer is to put fliers up at the other Hobbytowns.

I can advertise this event primarily to my second campus located in Wheatridge, as they have no rocketry program (yet). I believe that I can also send out an announcement to all Jeffco Schools as well.

What I need is a little encouragement from you guys and a couple of hands that would help with the building on a Saturday and (as was previously suggested in another thread) provide support and launch capabilities on Sunday in the Wheatridge area.
Given that we have a club launch scheduled on 5/5 and the
Cheyenne thing on 5/19, then the potential date in May would be on Saturday 5/12. That puts the launch on the morning of Mother's Day. Is that a good idea?

I love to do this kind of stuff so count me tentatively in. (Need to check the official wife calendar). I also have some options for your school launch, will PM you so as not to clog the board here.

Kevin
L2 Tri & NAR

I have talked to a person at Hobby Lobby in Fort Collins and they might consider the same if I bring them more specifics. Depending on response by members, I will also talk to Hobby Town, to see who is most receptive. Are there any members in the Fort Collins area ( or other places) who would be willing to participate in an outreach, like those discussed above? It will probably cost you 8 hours over the course of a weekend, maybe less. We could build almost ready to fly kits for the Saturday portion, and launch on Sunday. It would not take much to build a quick launcher that could fly up to 8 rockets so that we would not need the club's equipment.
Any takers?

Count me in Bear depending on the weekend. I also have a solution for the launcher. I actually sent this to David in a PM but as of 2 weeks ago I officially registered a new company called "Oslers Orbits". The initial product is a 8 port rocket launcher that I have been designing for a while accross many kids events I have run. It has a dual key safety system and enough alarms to try to ensure some kid doesn't light themselves up. Anyway, I am looking for any events right now where I can stress test my latest design.

If anyone else in the club has any Scout, Youth or 4H events that they need some help with, I need the test time so send me a PM.

I'll post something in the vendor forum when I get further on the final product.

Kevin

Kevin, Thank you very much for volunteering to help. If this event was to be done on 5/12-13 like Dave Smith's or 5/19-20 like Cheyenne, would either of those work for you? I am thinking that we might need at least 4 people, (so at least 2 more volunteers) depending on the number of kids available to learn. My intentions are to promote it to the science teachers in Poudre School District, the private and Charter Schools, church schools, and then see if it can be advertised in the store. Maybe if very fortunate, we might get 30 kids and their parent(s). I will be talking to members of the Poudre School Board Tuesday night at the Republican caucuses and also seeing if I can use a high school for a launch site.

Kevin, It is also great that you have started your own business with the launchers. Do you have a website yet? Also, any ideas, suggestions, or other imputs please let me know. If my dates are wrong, let me know that also. My reasoning is pretty much the same as Dave's, just 60 miles further norht. Barry

Well, I would love to do both events, if they both end up on the same day I'll still lend you the launcher if you don't mind testing it out for me. I should have quite a few built by then, some as demo units and some to sell. Any chance of either of you moving it to another weekend? I don't mind missing the Club launch on the 5th if one of you want to do it then. We could serve salsa and call it the Cinco de Mayo Bon Voyages. Heck, we should build a jalapeno rocket that flys on a G 🙂

Working on the website, also working out the graphics for the cases and the zillion other details needed get in production mode. I hope to be completely up and running by the end of Feb in all areas.

Kevin

It could bemoved to the 5th except that I told Joe I would be happy to be the Contest Director for the Pawnee Open which I would think kinda obligates me to be there, ya know what I mean? If we did it in late April, we are making our time shorter for advertising and getting ready, but we could invite them out to the Pawnee Open and then to MHM. I think we still need some more volunteers before I will put much more effort into it. Otherwise, I will be traveling to see how I can help in Cheyenne and Westminster, also dependant on other obligations as they show up. ( Mainly work or wife)

I spoke and have received the initial ok with Hobbytown in Wheatridge. That weekend of the 12th looks the best. It is Mother Day on the Sunday. My wife suggested that most moms would be perhaps a little disagreeable to a Sunday morning launch. I am wondering if it makes sense to have the build happen on Friday evening (4-??) and the launch on Saturday morning. I haven't given the store a final date yet.

I also thought that it might be nice to develop a handout like a brochure that includes some pictures, links, and dates. Easy enough to do.

I will take the point on the Cheyenne activity with the Venture Club. I just need a couple of guys to show up with some rockets, etc.

If Bear is up in Ft. Collins on the same day as I am in Wheatridge, then obviously I can't help out up in Ft. Collins.

And vice versa. I just was not quick enough on the draw. I want to come down and help on yours. So what if I planned to put together the rocket class and launch in Fort Collins on April 28-29? How does that work for you, Kevin and Dave, and any others that are thinking about volunteering? This might be a chance to improve and/or change the life of some youngster by giving them a new focus and interest which might keep them out of trouble and at the same time get some new club members. I am still thinking that a parent or guardian has to be present at the build and the launch so we do not end up being baby-sitters. Are you thinking that way also, Dave?

all of that works for me! and yes, it definitely helps to have a parent around for the launch. My initial class launch at my school turned into a large safety issue that I probably woulda/coulda/shoulda managed better. We do the Ft. Collins one the last week of April works well for me.

I just contacted the Cheyenne one with a couple of questions. I was thinking that we could set up a projector screen and show some videos and/or our website. We could make a simple slide presentation with photos from our members that could run in the background.

In Wheatridge, I am planning on having some of my own students there to help with the building as well as the launching, as it seems that we have become more reliable in focusing on safety and good construction.

What do you think about the Fri/Sat schedule on Mother Day weekend?

My first thought is the Friday night might be hard to pull off because it is the end of the week, people want to chill or go out, fixing dinner for the kids, etc. Seems to me you might only have a 2-3 hour window of opportunity. I am an old fart (Fathers Against Rebellous Teenagers), my wife and I frequently have a date night on Friday night, so I take her to Denver, we go to Cinzetti's first and then to the class. I am the easy one, getting parents and kids on friday night is another story.

I'm good with any/all of these dates:

April 28th/29th. - Ft Collins with Bear.
May 11 & 12 or 12 & 13 - Wheatridge with Dave
May 19th 10am-4pm - Cheyenne Hobby Day

I feel the same as you do Bear. I have been dragging Scouts and Youth group kids to the NCR launches for years now along with organizing huge rocket build nights and teaching the scout badges and theory. The main reason I do it is because I think a lot of kids in the U.S. have forgot what science is. Apogee and Estes have put together amazing training materials now to teach kids everything from math to English using rocketry. I feel if we can inspire just one kid to possibly change their career path over to science, we have achieved a great thing. I know I will never make it in to space, but maybe one of them will.

So as far as huge rocket builds, I always suggest that a parent comes with the child and pair kids that come without parents with another parent. There are knives, glue and instructions and a handful of other pitfalls to deal with. Even if you are standing up in front of the group there is always a handful of kids that will need some extra help. I have been most successful with the ready-to-fly or small simple rockets when we do build nights. To boost the science a bit I have a list of Trivia questions I yell out during the build and the first right answer gets candy.

When I was the cubmaster for a pack here in Longmont, I just gave everyone the location of the nearest Hobbytown on a flyer with hints and tips and had them go buy their own rocket and build it at home with their parents. Then, the day before the launch I had them come in for a swing stability test and inspection. This way kids can work at their own pace and if they want to they can probably get some paint on it. HA - walked in to the Hobbytown mid-week and their rocket section looked like a bare field, boy was the owner ticked, glad your thinking ahead and giving them a fair warning.

Anyway, usually my goals with the kids are the following. 1) Have fun 2) Get them excited about Rocketry and Science 3) Teach them about stability 4) Get them a taste of hobby building skills 5) Get them to enjoy it with their parents. Also, I always pass them a list of the NCR events and encourage them to attend at least one.

Thanks guys! Sure could use at least one more person to volunteer to assist in the Fort Collins campaign and any of the others also. Of course the more the merrier! I will start working on a retail sponsor on Monday. The reason I have been focusing on Hobby Lobby over Hobby Town, is that I feel Hobby Lobby is better known and a lot more parents walk in to there than Hobby Town. Then the belief is a greater exposure to more people. I am hoping that maybe my Intimidator 3 could be hung from a ceiling in all of it's dayglo orange color to attract attention to it and maybe a banner hanging from it anouncing the class. I think I have access to a projector I could hook to my laptop and show a video of launches, RockSim simulations, etc. I was going to look at almost ready to fly kits, so that there is some building involved. (When I did it in elementary schools 40 years ago using Alphas, we had to make the motor mount, glue on fins, glue in shock cord mounts, cut-out parachutes and then assemble them. If the teachers were not mechanical, it made it ratehr difficult and challenging for a 16 year old kid.

I just got the final word from the Hobbytown in Wheatridge. MOther's day weekend is out.

I picked the only other weekend that makes sense (weather may become an issue) and that is the Saturday, April 21st. with the launch coming on Sunday the 22nd.

I have a projector that can hook up to a laptop as well as the screen to go with it.

Confirm me for the Ft. Collins Date as well as the Cheyenne one.

I am thinking like the rest of you; we can show some videos as well as some pictures. I would like to have club members contribute to having one of us build some sort of powerpoint kind of presentation that we could have running that includes videos as well. If one of us can take on that project, I can focus on getting a brochure/flyer designed as a handout (particularly for the Cheyenne Gig). I also am working on a combination brochure that has NCR on one side and my Charter School on the other.

Can we make sure that we have all of the correct dates as well as getting a list of some members who are committing to being there as well?