I am very motivated to start a new FSAE team at the University of Michigan - Flint. The U of M campuses in Ann Arbor and Dearborn have FSAE teams and I will be reaching out to them for advice. I do have a friend who ran an FSAE team at his university and have some good connections to the GM Performance Division which may be of some help.
But, forgetting all of that, beyond posting on forums and reaching out for advice, where do I begin? Has anyone ever setup a new team from nothing? I have searched on these forums, but most of the new team info I found were for teams that had already formed and were in their first year. This is just me trying to get this going with only a few loose "Yeah, I'd join that" commitments from about six students.
So far, I have been by the student life office and have the forms to fill out to start a new club. If the club is approved (which I have little doubt it won't be), I believe I will be able to announce to the entire student body I am trying to start an FSAE team and hopefully can recruit from there. I have probed around to a couple faculty members, but they didn't seem to understand what an FSAE team is and does (I'm new at the school, so I have few connections.)
I have also read over the "Organizing a Formula SAE Team" article on sae.org. While excellent info, there isn't much in the way of: Start Here from Nothing.
I am willing to put the time in to get his started. I know it will take a lot of effort for sponsorship, recruitment, and organization before we even start to build a car. All of this has me really excited.
So, with all that being said, where do I go from here?
Thank you in advance for your advice.
Scott