Recruiting Girls
We find a pretty direct correlation to girls’ interest and participation in FLL based on how the program is “pitched”. Note that these are generalities – not all strategies are relevant or work in all situations.
Try:
1) Introduce FLL as a way to make a real, practical difference in the world through the challenge theme (this coming season’s theme is BioMedical Engineering)
2) Emphasize having fun, in a team-based (with friends), hands-on activity that uses technology to solve a problem
Avoid
1) Don’t focus on the competition side. Yes, going to a tournament is loads of fun but it is unlike most other competitive ventures. We like the analogy to a golf tournament. Yes, you are competing against all of the other golfers but really it is about doing your best and how you play the game and much less about focusing on the game play of the others.
Also, the strategy for recruiting potential team members differs based on age a bit but we generally find a couple of things that tend to work:
1) Go after the parents (which works pretty well with the older girls – late middle school or jr high school) – it gives the older girls a “social out” so to speak. The girls can claim to their friends that their parents signed them up and that they have no choice but to do it <grin>
2) Have girls recruit girls
3) Have teachers “highly recommend” the girls to participate – this works well where a teacher’s recommendation will mean something to the parents and where you might end up with an all boys team and an all girls team. If you just have an all girls team and teachers are only recommending girls, you might need to spin it a bit so that they still feel honored to be recommended….
Sometimes contacting the local Girl Scout leaders in the area about being a mentor to a troop can work or similar organizations like 4-H or Boys&Girls clubs in the area can also work. Alot depends on the organization’s “volunteer vetting” process to how welcome they would be to your offer to help.
The average team size is 4 to 6, so not too many kids are needed if you already have a daughter that would be interested. We don’t recommend teams with just 3 kids as it really tends turn to 2 against 1 in decision making and starts to get personal but we have seen successful 3 member teams as well as successful large teams (8 to 10 members).
Finally, we have quite a few FLL videos linked into the the norcalfll.org site – you might look through and find a couple that would appeal to those that are not quite what this is all about.
Hope this helps – let us know what works for you, where you are….
My team currently has 6 girls and 4 boys. It’s a good mix. I think you’re right in how to recruit them. For my team the girls recruited other girls for the most part.
I think some of the girls were nervous to be on a team with boys. At the first meeting in May I observed them dividing into boy or girl groups. So the next few meetings I drew names to mix them up for our team building exercises. There was a little resistance at first from some of the boys and girls. I reassured them the activities were going to be fun and to not worry about who they’re teamed up with for the activity because I would let them choose teams too. But honestly, it only took a few meetings before they were naturally mixing together, regardless of gender. I didn’t have to draw names after that – it was very exciting to see them team up with different teammates each time without my intervention! It’s been good for all of them. They’re like brothers & sisters now – very comfortable with each other and they work together very well. I feel very lucky!