Team sizes?

[Wacko324]

After reading many posts, it seems to me like most teams have a very large amount of studens. Team 1495 has like 3 students who show up all the time and a couple others that come whenver. I was wondering how many students other teams have and do you think having a big or small team size is better?

[Tom Bottiglieri]

team 195 has about 5-6 people who show up every day for the entirety of the meeting. Then we have about 20 other kids who show up when they want, dont get anything done, and get in the way.

now for your question, i think both situations have pros and cons.
Large Team Pros: More money will come into the team; more support; your team takes up more room at competions; more people to place blame on when things go wrong; more can get done when organized properly.
Large Team Cons: More time taken to organize things than actual work time; people get in the way; people complain when there is nothing to do, even though they wont do anything they are givent o do; more space needed to work in; some people only show up some times, and expected to be filled in when they choose to show up; can turn into a disaster when not properly organized; team members find themselves with nothing to do.

Small Team Pros: More can get done by individuals. More communication between team members; jobs can be distriuted easily; everyone is always busy with something; the same people always show up; no one to annoy you as you are trying to work on a project
Small Team Cons: Less money is fundraised; Nowhere to run when you mess something up; Team may looked upon as amatuer at comps compared to huge teams with 30+ people; a meeting missing a person may be a waste of a meeting

Thats my 2 cents

[steven114]

We have 15 or so students, but only 6 show up regularly...

[Crop-Circles]

We have about 14 students and about 10-12 are at any given meeting.

[Allison K]

I've been on both. This year I'm leader of a small team, and I really like it. There are six of us on a regular basis, plus a few floaters. From the adult point of view, small teams sure make paperwork easier. I also like how we operate. Last year i was a student on a large team (About 50 students), but because we were diveded into subgroups (Build, Management, Chairmans, Digital, Spirit, and one other I forgot), it didn't usually feel like such a large team. I was on build, and was pretty good freinds with the others on build, so it almost felt like a small team. This year on that team is a young year. About six seniors graduated last year, so there's a lot of freshman/sophmores. I think they'll be a better team in a few years when they all learn to work with one another.

This is back to that "does your team operate like a family or a business" question.

On 1313, we operate like a family, disfunctional at times.
On 226, the team as a whole operates like a business, but the build group more of a family, or possibly family business or a disfunctional family business (usually late at night)

On 1313, I'd really like to increase the team size. My goal is 15 for next year. But I think 226 is too big this year, or at least the build group is too big. There's not enough for everyone to do.

Allison

[greencactus3]

we have maybe atotal of 10? idunno, never seen more than 4 at a given time. i'm the only one who's ALWAYS there. some are kept on the team for the reason they got some money for us. otherwise they wouldn't be on the team anymore.

having less people is easy to work with, but you can never get things done in time. we don't need any more people. we just need 20 hands working continuosly instead of about 6 hands.

[white_ChocOlat8]

we have a total student population of about 25 or so and on average about 10-12 show up and about 5-8 actuly work.

[Elyse Holguin]

Don't worry, it's not only the newer teams that have a pretty small number of members, Team Hammond usually has only about 20-25 students (at least since I've beeen on the team and I'm a senior) and this year we have only 18 members (with about 15 or so are at any given meeting). Having a small team does not mean you can't go far, just make sure everyone knows the game, and what your robot can do for competition.

[Koko Ed]

We have 33 students and about 30+ adults. I know a few years ago we had something like 50+ kids and it's hard to find that many kids something to do all the time(I have no idea how SPAM can handle having 80 kids). 40 students are a good number to keep the kids engaged enough and efficently get things done.

[Joe J.]

We have somewhere between 60 and 70 students. About 20 that work on the robot and 5 that show up all the time.

[Ryan M.]

We have around 12, but most of them show up to every meeting.

Big teams are good except for the extra coordination of everyone. :)

[Hokie4Life]

We have about 25 people on our team and since we get school credit for taking the class, all people are active and attend very regularly.

[Smrtman5]

Our team has about 13 members. Most of us show up all the time and usually work hard. However, we dont have any outside help. Our two mentors are teachers at our school (one mostly gets in the way, anyway). For those teams above with small #s of students, do you get outside help or is the work mostly done by the students?
Just my oppinion, but i think its a lot more rewarding to know that a group of students came together to build a robot.

[Nathan Pell]

we have a total student population of about 25 or so and on average about 10-12 show up and about 5-8 actuly work.

That is not totally correct. We have about 45 members on our team, with around 30 of them being students. We average about 20 students per day, and most of them have something to do for the most part.

It is very difficult to make sure everyone has something to do. I wish someone form SPAM would post.

Nathan Pell
Head Coach - 1083

[blindguyinanorg]

we have 5 that show up regularly, only 2 of which have done anything mechanical before(myself and one other). the 2 of us have only been in FIRST 1 other year. i am a professional carpeter so our robot is basicly being built like a construction prject. measure as we go because we cant machine parts or cut things that acurate.

we also have ONLY ONE adult mentor and he can only help once a week at the most. so, not by choice, the robot is my creation with others helping me. our robot really isnt any good because of it.


my biggest problem with a small team is there is no specialization. especially when most of the people dont know what to do. monday was the first day were we had enough started(by all of us so everyone knew basicly what was going on for each thing) that a few could work on each thing. i ran back and forth guiding them.

[Alex Salomonsky]

We have had at most 40 students show up, and I hate it. I'm a veteran member of this team, and one of only like 7-8 who have been on the team since our rookie year, while the team is increasing every year. These people get in the way, half of them I want to hang or smother w/ a pillow. Then constant arguing has set us back, plus the teachers kicking us at at 4:30 everyday has us still w/o a robot that can power itself. we are unable to organize the team, and we still need to build an arm for our bot, with only a week left, on top of that, our "head" teacher hasn't even made contact with ITT, who mentored a helped us last year. I loved it much better when the first year had like 10 people, when I loved this competition and being with a bunch of guys and girls having fun, now this year just flat out sucks.

[greencactus3]

Our team has about 13 members. Most of us show up all the time and usually work hard. However, we dont have any outside help. Our two mentors are teachers at our school (one mostly gets in the way, anyway). For those teams above with small #s of students, do you get outside help or is the work mostly done by the students?
Just my oppinion, but i think its a lot more rewarding to know that a group of students came together to build a robot.

i guess we'd definitly fit into the small teams with only 10 people. us, we have one mentor. a teacher from our school.. very helpful in many ways, but not much experience in stuff like this... and thats it. the rest is students whether they work or not is another matter.
yeah, our team is definitly a student-run one.

[shyra1353]

we have 9 students on our team ... 2 teachers who have recently (in the past two weeks) become a little bit involved .. and 4 mentors/engineers ... we work really well together ... most of us students show up to meetings (anywhere from 6-9 at a meeting). we joke around a lot and know a lot about each other personally ... some of us are connected outside of the team as well which helps.

as to which i like better .. i like a team of 10 because you become really good friends and as a result more gets done .. i was on a team of about 20 last year .. and i think that thats the maximum there should be because after that1 (and even then) some people are just sitting around

edit/ it also depends on how your team is organized .. our engineers used to have a rule (when there were 13 people) on the team, that only 6 could show up at a time because any more would be less productive and they were not able to watch over 13 of us at a time ... this might be a good rule for some of the larger teams (40- 50) people to enforce but maybe with 12 people instead ... but then again it all depends on your team

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Our students participation determines grade since this is a for credit class, for all quarters. The entire team meets on Monday nights to get weekly assignments, work on projects and the mini competition (fall through December) and give and get sub team weekly reports during robot season. We have 75 registered students, but we don't have perfect attendance. During build, test and practice, sub teams meet several times a week. Electrical and mechanical give support during practice. Playing field does most of their work early on then start on the shipping container. We take a skeleton group to our first regional. The second is the Midwest regional held close by so all the team can come. Then we take 30-35 students to the nationals. Each of the sub teams is given a certain number that can go and it is up to the adults on the team to make recomendations. The teachers have the final say based on a variety of factors like attendance, fund raising, participation and grades. We try to get each of the subteams working closely with mentors and the students get a chance to see what it is like to work in a corporate environment. Large teams do get uncontrolled at times, but the students do get a chance to experience things they would not have a chance to otherwise.

[Arefin Bari]

there are about 60 students on the roster for the team... in average about 30 shows up... build time 15 shows up... but still the students are involved with lot of other work on the team...

[Pierson]

There are 40+ in our roster... Roughly 30 show up to work. The nice thing about having a larger team is that we have 5 people dedicated to graphics. 4 dedicated to marketing. 2 dedicated to electrical. 7 are leadership (though they also fall into those other categories.) The remainder of the people are builders, machinists, or odd-job doers.

[Guest]

Technically our team has 33 members - but that's only technically. I think there are approx. 8 on animation, 6 on PR, and the rest on Build. 4 of us overlap (me, Eric C., Vincent, and David) overlap on more than one group. In Build, only maybe 7 - 10 at max actually "work" - I know that there are a couple of team members that have never done anything at all.

In our first year, we had less people - and almost everybody worked, which was really nice. Now in our third year, most of us that come regularly and work are those same ones how joined at the birth of the club. We also know each other really well (inside and outside of the club), which lets us work really well in the team. However, it does make us sort of defensive to new members. (I'm guilty of this too.) In spite of that, anybody who works hard and will give anything (time, effort, etc.) for the team is always accepted, no matter how big the group becomes.

One of the problems with such a small "core" group of members is that most of us will graduate next year (one of the core graduates this year). Some of the new members are fusing into the core, but after next year I really don't what's gonna happen...

[tribotec_ca88]

Team 1382 has 26 students and about 10 mentors (engineers, teachers, & school staff). All students show up on a regular basis (daily) although some of them stay longer than others and most show up on saturdays and sundays...But there are days when there´s not much work and about 15-20 people are actually doing something useful...(the other members are there, however, they will usually be playing tetris or pinball :yikes: )

I think around 30 people overall on a team is a good number to have because the work is well-distributed & it´s not as difficult to communicate w/each other.. Team 1382 is split up into 5 groups:
6 students - marketing/public relations
3 st. - autodesk inventor
4 st. - 3d animation
6 st. - mechanics
7 st. - electronics & programming

[JakeGallagher]

We have about 30 students on our team, with about 10 who are there most of the time. We also have a bunch of mentors and others that are there for us all the time too. I'd say that of the few that are there all the time, there are maybe 4 that get a lot of work done. And, I have to admit, though I'm there a lot, I'm usually in the way. It's just the way I am.
But, just because we have a bunch of people on our team doesn't mean we get a lot of easy funding. I think pulling teeth is easier than getting a freshman to put a good effort into fundraising. It's even worse sometimes to get the upperclassmen to get it done too.
I'd say the biggest Pro to having a big team is when the meetings happen, there's always someone there who you can bounce ideas off of and if you need help with something (whether it be homework or something else) there's almost always a team member who knows how to get it done. For the most part, our team is one big, happy family ^_^ lol. Seriously though, we're always there to help each other out.

[Alex Pelan]

Hmm.. well we have about 30 members, 10-18 who come regularly and we do pretty well, workwise. Unfortunately, we also have 16 seniors (16!) who make up more than 2/3 of that 10-18, which does not bode well for next year.

[Astronouth7303]

Hmm.. well we have about 30 members, 10-18 who come regularly and we do pretty well, workwise. Unfortunately, we also have 16 seniors (16!) who make up more than 2/3 of that 10-18, which does not bode well for next year.
You have it easy. We have 8 people you had an active part on the robot, plus 3 mentors. 6 are seniors. I'm a freshmen AND the programmer AND have the largest commute. Something tells me I will be taking on additional responsibilities next year...
The roster has 13 students and 4 mentors. Anyone still around next year is going to do A LOT of recruiting.

[Vivelation]

41 students, 5 or so mentors, 1 alumnus who's always there (he's kind of a mentor but kind of not), 1 teacher

of the students:
about 8 on animation
at least 3 on electronics
2-3 on Chairman's
at least 5 on website
most everyone (except for animation people) helps w/robot

Most people usually show up during build, but this year, not as many people were there. The majority of students actually work and get things done, but there are a few who don't do much, and they get in the way, and then you want to whack them to see if they'll work on something.

Next year, we'll be in some sort of hole, seeing's how 16 members are seniors this year. The year after that, the team is going to need to do a lot more recruiting because there will probably be at least 20 seniors next year(which will be at least half the team).

[Aaron Knight]

Team 891 has about half a dozen regulars, total of 10 students overall. Can't seem to get all 10 to show up to any one meeting, tho :)

[Hinkel Y.]

Team 188 has around 25 this year (Plus a few great mentors), and most of them are extremely committed (especially the niners this year). But I don't think it matters on how many members are on your team that counts, it's the amount of commitment that every single members shows with the enthusiasm they show.

[Sam Oldak]

We've got 9 people, but everyone shows up to every meeting, so everything goes smoothly.

[c-squared_2006]

We probably have really only like four dedicated students others just come for the ride. Techinally we have like a dozen or so, HELP, recuiting tips?!? :D (demos during lunch only attracted more people who are like drug atticts and not very nice people to hang around with, so that didn't work out well, any other ideas?) I'm happy to say that our coach and mentors really do work hard and we really appreciate them. But next year our coach isn't going to be here as much, so we really need to get orginized now, would anyone by any chance know how to get students modivated to do something, out of the goodness of their heart?

[dhoffman]

We have about 10 students, 1 teacher, and one dedicated parent. Of those 10 students, most are constantly working. Despite our small team size, it is a good number of kids because our high school only has 50 kids. So we've got about 20% of the entire studnet body!

[Mindstorm]

My team has 8 team members, one that always shows up, me, another that tries to always show up, but is usually can't for different reasons, one that just shows up to work on the robot, one that just shows up but doesn't seem to enjoy it and he has no idea what he is doing (he joined to work on the animation team, but we have no animation team), the rest just come every now and then.

We have more mentors than students with a total of 9 so we get a lot of work done

[BlueOrion]

By the end of the season, it's down to about 30 people, from 45 at the very beginning. Of those 30, about 20 travel to reg's and nat'ls that involve hotels and travel expenses. There are always the people who always come and put in the most time...there is no perfect number of people for a team or build crew...it's useful to have many people to get work done, but having a lot of people also increases down-time, unproductivity, frustration, and boredom.

[Bcahn836]

Team 836 has about 40 students on the team and 13 mentors. There are 20-25 students at the meetings every time and 90% of the mentors. It is good to have alot of people but you sometimes run out of jobs for them. Our team is divided into sub teams. Electronics, drive train, Arm and end,manufacturing, programing, public relations,stratedgy, animation, and lego league. with these 9 subteams 3-4 students that show up 95% of the time and 1-2 mentors in each group. However some of these sub teams break into smaller sub teams and some teams have to work together. for example electronics wireing up the drive motors. And for smaller teams we broke up the Arm team into two parts. Ladder and plow division.

As you can see our team is very complex, and communication is one of our strong points, and is a must. I could go further but now i am probably boring you. LOL
http://www.smcps.k12.md.us/tech/EngTech/index.html
is our website from last year it is missing alot but will explain somewhat.

[Atman]

We have 18 students. Of those almost all come to the meetings. You can always tell the people who are totally dedicated. During the season We gained a few and dropped a few. Just like everything else though 10% of the people do 90% of the work. Its just how it is. We are very content with our number. Its perfect for our golf tournament. This is our main fundraiser and this year we set a record, we made $23,000. This number is good when we split into groups to get the work done. I dont think I could handle being on a team with 50 or a team with 8.

[~JeSsIcA~]

We have about 25. about 15-20 show up to the mettings. Size of the team really dosent matter it really all depends how you work together.

[Grommit]

We have roughly 65 members, split roughly evenly between the Engineering side and Operations (animation, public relations, finance, graphics) sides of things.

We find that only about 15 people come to the build, always, but that this is a good number and quite sufficient to lead a successful build.

On the other hand, it is difficult to get the whole team together, with so many people... we have had numerous communication problems in the past.

[michelleL]

This year our team has 27 students...not much with a number, but when you really look at the bigger picture, thats a lot already.

[nick180intucson]

out team 1011 crush has 20 members but really only like 20 thats amazing that you guys only have 3 members how did you guys get it done

and congrads to mike rush we love you

nick brown :D

[Astronouth7303]

There was a team next to us at buckeye that had literally 3 people: a kid, his dad, and his physics professor. And he got a judges award (I think). He was the only one to accept it!

[Levin571]

our team, which is a combonation of us at Loomis and students at Windsor High, has 12-16 active members

[omutton]

There was a team next to us at buckeye that had literally 3 people: a kid, his dad, and his physics professor. And he got a judges award (I think). He was the only one to accept it!

Yah our pits were near there too. I can't believe it is possible to build a functioning robot in 6 weeks with 3 people.

[DaBruteForceGuy]

I have looked at this in the past. My team is probably about 20 students that actually come and help out with all the aspects of the team. When i look at it, even though about 12 people really designed and built the robot, when we go to a competition we have everybody wearing shirts and cheering for us. These enourmous team sizes really don't bother me at all, because though i know that not all of them had a hand in the team persay, they all walked away form the competition inspired by the technology and workings of a FIRST team.
We all know that even though they are at the competition with a certain teams shirt on, it doesn't mean they're a member of the team, but supporting their *home team*.... This is why i say there are 20 of us on my team instead of the 35 that show up to our regional competitions.....

[Rich Kressly]

This year we have 30 students, 3 teachers, and approxmately 10 technical/parent mentors.

[Alex Salomonsky]

Team 769 has ranging from 30-40 team members, but that number will trim if annoying freshmen don't shut up