Your team's structure and organization
 

Our team is currently in the process of looking(possibly revising ours) at new organization methods and structures. Therefore, I would like input from you of how your team works. Please mention the size of your team and variables such as parent involvement, engineer involvement, student involvement, attitude etc. I know most of you would mention this stuff in your chairmans submission, so a link to that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for you input.
-Bharat

Re: Your team's structure and organization
 

Team 108's history and chaimans award entry can be found at www.sigmacatrobotics.com

Re: Your team's structure and organization
 

1293 this year essentially was structureless. Looking back, I don't recommend it. We had some 25ish students, two main engineers, a group of four teachers, and one utterly nuts college student. (Seriously, that guy needs to chill.)

While it got the robot done, we wound up missing out on other things, like Chairman's or WFA. I, personally, will be pushing for that to change for 2006.

Re: Your team's structure and organization
 

We try to do everything as simple as possible on 573. Like many other teams, we have 5 subgroups: project management, chassis, appendage, electronics/programming, and promotions/communications.

As to how we grouped each of our 25 members, the student subgroup leaders and the mentors had a meeting in which we took the sheets that everyone filled out (which detailed personal talents AND interests). We grouped them according to these factors, making sure that the 5 subgroups were at least somewhat balanced quantitatively and experience-wise.

The mentors and the student leaders, while focusing on one subgroup, did float around to other subgroups to fortify communication lines within the team.

Every other week or so, the student subgroup leaders discussed any problems at hand (lack of resources, reevaluation of season agenda, etc.), and addressed these with the mentors.

We were lucky to have parents willing to organize all things concerning food for us. :)

Our overall organization method proved to be very successful for us during the season. It kept us on track, and made sure that each person had something to do.

Re: Your team's structure and organization
 

Oh, forgot to mention, I would also like to know how successful your methods are(as Lisa did). Thanks.

Re: Your team's structure and organization
 

I think one person should be officially designated as the team captain to stay on top of things but other than that I wouldn't have official positions. I would let people just fall into doing whatever they do best.

If found that a democracy style system where everyone gets a say and there are votes is very inefficient and nothing gets done. For a short 6 week timeframe, somewhat of a dictatorship is needed to get work done.

One suggestion I have:
Make sure everyone is not afraid to ask "why" of someone else's (especially mentors') proposals.

Also, a lot of the successful teams I've seen have very motivated adults pushing them. The adults can not take a passive stand on issues like event attendace or fundraising or meeting times, or strategy. Some things kids will not do if you just leave it to them.

Re: Your team's structure and organization
 

Team 836 has pretty much kept the same team structure since its inception 4 years ago. Our team usually in the preseason starts out with between 40 and 60 members. When school starts in August we invite as many people as we can have them fill out some paper work and based on their interest place them in a sub team. And they are Public Relations, Marketing, Electronics, Drive Train, Arm and End, Manufacturing, Programming, Design and this year safety. And at any point anyone can change sub teams based on their interest. The parents when they come in go into sub teams where they have some experience, for example my father is an electronics technician so he helps out with the electronics group, and now he is a logistics person so he now helps with the design keeping records of various things like parts distribution and weight. Most of our mentors are from local company sponsors, we have like 4 mentors that work for BAE Systems. And they help out based on their experience and interest. During the preseason we have training meetings to help show all of the new people the ropes and to find their real interest, at the same time we have leadership training courses. In these training courses the mentors and last years leadership hand pick 12-13 good candidates to be leaders of a sub team and also to fill the positions of President and Manager, which this year I was the President and our Programmer Miles was team manager. Once the season starts we usually end up with 30-40 members due to various reasons like grades and also people can't make it due to jobs. This system we have used for 4 years and has worked perfectly, everyone feels like a part of the team and it allows for some student leadership to help run the team. And it also allows dedicated rookies to get involved in the leadership of the team as well.

Re: Your team's structure and organization
 

Though you pretty well know how 1089 works, I figured i'd post anyhow. We don't have much of a structure, i.e. no officers or groups or any of that... we have no engineers, no parent involvement (other than one parent who works with us as an engineer would, and the parents of one of the mentors who have minor involvement as well). We have about 20 students, attitude is generally pretty good.. a lot of us are learning still. we love to do random team activities outside robotics also, which are mostly a wholllee lot of nonsense, again, as you know =p. Anddd to conclude, I believe you are already in possession of our Chairman's essay... let me know if you need anything else.

Re: Your team's structure and organization
 

245 organization:

Supreme Being>The Captain Rich (me)>First tier (drive team)>Rest of team>Dirt>Freshmen

And over here somewhere is the programming team, they have the veto

Re: Your team's structure and organization
 

While our organization was not rigidly structured, we used the availible students and mentors to take responsibilities to get work done. We did not use democracy nor tyranny, the system worked in a fairly simple manner: the students who came the most would be responsible for certain systems and parts on the robot. The mentors were involved by taking the reigns of a single system and helping out the kids who chose to work with them, and then helping the other teams as well. You do not need a thousand mentors to succeed- a few mentors and dedicated students should give a little push to the rest and get them involved as well. At the same time, students who didn't like working with the mechanical parts formed smaller subteams, like the programming group and used an old robot to try out the camera and write some autonomous modes. Some students tried their hands at animation and a few others worked on our Woodie Flowers nomination. In the end, your exact structure will depend on the number of students, mentors, and resources availible, but you should abide a few ideas to keep the teamwork going:

- Leadership is formed naturally through participation and volunteering; noone needs to be forced into any situation
- Leaders must try their hardest to inspire the involvement of others
- Share responsibilities: find talents and make the best of them
- Allow equal opportunity to those who ask for it. If it's interesting to them, let them try it!
- If ever an arguement begins to ruin cooperation, the team mediate itself and get back on track through discussion. Rash and unthoughtful actions are the most crippling to any team

I hope what I have presented will be useful to your team's reorganization. Inspiring interest in robotics and technology lays the foundation for your team. Building the robot and other functions are just the building that goes on top.

_Alex

Re: Your team's structure and organization
 

This is our second year as a team, but unfortunately we only have about 6 kids who were on the team last year. We also have a new advisor. The 6 from last year(including myself) were the "captains" and we tried to teach everyone what we know. The engineers helped primarily with the robot and it was left up to the students to organize themselves. We have become very self sufficient with about 20 dedicated members. We have a great bunch of kids who are willing to do what's necessary to get the job done. We didn't have too much of a fund raising team or public relations team this year, but next year we are going to put more emphasis on that with the mentors and kids working together. At one point we had around 80 kids on the team, that number slowly went down. It is my goal by the time I graduate in 2007 to have that many kids actively participate on the team. I am proud of what we have become and I cannot wait to see how we advance even further. I believe that each team is different. Every team operates in different ways and it is important that every team figure out how it can play off of its own abilities. Team 25, especially, has proven itself in many ways and I am sure that you guys will figure out what works best for you. Good luck!

GO 1403!!!

Re: Your team's structure and organization
 

Well, we have elected officers who help the mentors to organize a lot of stuff and make sure everyone is working (along with each have their own particular duties to attend to). Then basically its just that the older members work and help the newer members learn things.

We have about 35 members, 3 advisors (2 in school, one out of), 3 engineers, and like 6 or 7 technical parents, and 4 or 5 parents who help us organize trips & finances.

Everything is built by the students and the students and engineers come up with a basic design together. Some of the particulars of the design are decided by the mentors/engineers (they do engineering...they should know what they're talking about afterall).

Involvement...well...most of the time when people are there they work. Occasionally we run out of things for people to do which leads to less constructive projects (i.e. playing games on the computer). Next year we hope to solve this problem, however.

Our chairman's submission isn't online (yet). But we have a place on our website for team organization here.

Re: Your team's structure and organization
 

Our team has 82 member this year and will have 120+ next year. we have 3 club mentors, and 4 or 5 main parents (hopefully more this year)
We have 7 different teams and 3 executive officers
We have a president, Secretary, and Treasurer
President=oversee's all operations
Secretary= makes sure everyone is keeping intouch with the club. Takes meeting minutes, tells people whenever there is a meeting
Treasurer=Schedules all fundraising events and looks for corporat sponsors

All tams each have a leader. Our Club tries to have a bussiness like atmosphere when it coms to the structure.

BEST Team= Participats in the building of the BEST robot.(9th and 10th)

Fundraising= headed by the treasurer. The Fundraising Team helps look for sponsorships. All members of the team try and help make the team money, but this team constantly works on this.(all Grades)

Tech Team= designs traing cards, website handling, tshirt graphics, robot CAD, banner design, creates scouting Databse, Runs the Cyber Center, etc.(all grades)

Outreach Team= schedules most of the outreach events.(all grades)

Scouting Team= takes part in scouting out other teams. Helps with team spirit and promoting our team at competitions.(all grades)

Lego Team= Mentors Lego Teams twice a week. Helps teach at FLL work shops. Will be responsible for starting Jr. lego League teams in the county.(all grades)

FIRST Team= This team desigins and builds the FIRST robot. (11th and 12th)
WE are mentored by Georgia Tech. They hlp guide us when it comes to the design of the robot and building it.

Our main 3 school mentors help with all the finances and run evrything like that. They also help a little with the design and construction of the BEST robot, but most is done by students. This club is beginning to become more and more efficient.

Re: Your team's structure and organization
 

Currently on the team there is about 33 students, 2 advisors, various mentors, and all of the parents. Our team is structured like a corporation, allowing for maximum organization within the team. When you view the structure of a corporation you think of CEO's, Officers, Departments, and more, which is exactly what we decided to use.

We have the CEO's of the corporation being the two advisors, followed by the three departments which include Animation, Manufacturing, and PR/Marketing. Under those specific areas are the main jobs of the department. For example, below Manufacturing there is the Construction, Programming, and Design of the Robot. Under PR/Marketing (Communications) we have Public Relations, Marketing, Sponsorship, Fundraising, Website, Chairman's Award, and the Newsletter. Seeded off of Animation is Sound, Animation, and Video. Members are placed, when joining the team in the department that best reflects their interests. Each of these departments has a student representative -- which may be one of the team officer's - President (Chairman), Vice President (Co-Chairman), Secretary, and Treasurer.

The Officers function as team leaders and are elected by the team through a basic voting process (nomination/paper ballet). The officers are given tasks based off of there role (ex. Treasurer handles financial data, Does Business Plan,etc.).

However, what differs us from other teams is that the departments are 100% student run - advisors/mentors/parents assist but do not complete any given project. We also require total student participation.

View our Team Structure Here

I hope this helps - contact me with any future questions.

-Corey
corey103@gmail.com

Re: Your team's structure and organization
 

Last year, our first, our team came together at the last second (quite literally) and we did not even think about forming any sort of structure to the team. All things considered, we did fairly well, but we only had about 12-13 people. This year, someone developed this complex, multi-tiered, branched system with ridiculus positions (really, we have a CEO, CFO, COO, and who knows what else!) It is not working, and nothing is getting done or communicated. I hope that we change it to the more popular, and functional, system of a few large sub-groups. This seems to be the best system, and the one that I would reccomend. Of course, this differs from team to team, but I would like to give it a try.

Re: Your team's structure and organization
 

Team 103 has three main divisions: Manufacturing, Animation, and PR/Marketing.

Manufactuiring consists of the construction of the robot and mock field, inventor, autocad work, programming, and getting everything ready for the competiton (the actual game part).

Animation consists of the 3ds max animation team, the video production team, and other cool projects we just pick up during the year.

PR/Marketing keeps our team's money in order, does the monthly newsletter, handles outreach and runs the rural support program., updates and constructs the website, and organizes team functions and fundraising.

Our team this year is about 30 people, with 2 mentors that teach at the school and another 4+ mentors that are out-of-school. We don't have any engineers working with us, but the mentors are hardcore dedicated. Check out the website and browse around for additional information. www.cybersonics.org good luck!

Re: Your team's structure and organization
 

Re: Your team's structure and organization
 

My org-chart may prove interesting:

Re: Your team's structure and organization
 

We're in the process of restructuring. We tried anarchy but that only worked when the team was very small (<10 members). When it got bigger and we decided we wanted more structure, we tried democracy. That was a total failure. The biggest problem was that people were allowed to give input into things they had nothing to do with. ie, people who weren't going to be doing design work or other engineering voted in robot decisions. With tasks getting handed out to the community rather than individuals directly, it was unclear who was in charge of what. It proved to be very inefficient and troublesome. Democracy has been abandoned and popular voting for any decision is now frowned upon.

The new structure consists of 3 teirs with two branches: Engineering and Administration. Tier 1 is two people - one for each branch. These people are not actual workers, more like managers. They tell the people below them what needs to be done, but not how to do it. And, they aren't supposed to do any actual work, just distribute work and make sure that people are are doing their jobs. Tier 1 is only supposed to get overflow work (aside from their managerial duties). Tier 2 is the "sub-division" leaders. Each branch has been divided into several sub-divisions. One person heads each. Tier 1 and tier 2 are considered leadership positions. Teir 3 is everyone else, essentially the grunts. Each tier 2 leader has one or more teir 3 people working under them. The number of people in each teir 3 group is undefined, but it is intended that they choose a group and stay there. Tier 1 positions are appointed by Teir 0, the moderators. People interested in the positions have to submit a questionaire (sort of an informal application) and give a speech about why they would be good for the position. Teir 2 also has the same process, but the tier 1 leaders get some input to choose those who will be under them. Teir 3 is a free for all.

These are the tier 2 positions:

Engineering
Control Systems
Arm/Environmental Manipulator
Drivetrain/Chassis

Administration
Resource Management
Information Distribution
Marketing
Community Outreach
Website

A constitution of some sort still needs to be written up to describe specific protocol and duties for each position. However, the spirit of the system is that each person in teirs 1 and 2 will have the power/right to do their duties without undue interference from others. Tier 1 will have a limited (so far undetermined) amount of veto power over tier 2. This makes sure that nobody goes crazy and runs away with their power. Tier 0, of course, still has unlimited veto power over the entire hierarchy. With this power, tier 0 is still not supposed to act as part of the system above tier 1, just fix issues that might arise and pose a serious problem. But, because they are the moderators they will always have the power to do whatever they want. They can tell someone to stop playing with the yardstick, or they can shut the entire program down.

Each branch operates independently. Administration doesn't get to say what goes on the robot, Engineering doesn't get to say what goes in the pamphlets. This separation also holds between each of the tier 2 sub-divisions. A method of filing [i]grievances[i], however, is in the works. The idea is that you can tell someone that there is a problem, but not what to do about it (of course, if they feel the need, they can ask you what you think should happen). This prevents people from telling others how to do their jobs, or as what has happened before, taking over their job entirely.

All of this sounds very beaurocratic, but every detail has been put in place to fix problems that we've had. Democracy had to go away because it was too inefficient. There had to be a clearly defined structure to prevent people from trying to boss others around (unless they now have the explicit power to do so). Clearly defined positions now create liability. If something doesn't get done, we know who was in charge of it. As a side effect of all this, however, is that it solidifies the fact that the team is student run. To be cliche, this system is of the students, by the students, and for the students. Students created the system, they fill positions in the system, and it protects their power to be a student run team.

It was pointed out that the constitution (still in the works) is similar to the US Constitution. There is a separation of powers and each branch runs fairly autonomously. Some of the proposed clauses turned out to have a US Constitution equivalent. The whole purpose of it is to make sure that everyone gets along peacefully.

team structure and organization
 

Hmm....
On 1502 we have the basic five subgroups for the build: drivetrain, manipulation (like arms, etc.), programming, electronics, and support (tends to deal with all of the stuff not too important to the build of the robot but still crucial, like the cart/crate/promo.) The subteam heads have authority over and responsibility for the members of their specific group. We try to solve the majority of problems internally, and the subteam head can dictate to their team the way they want things to be done. Obviously, we consider the wishes of the team mebers. On top of this all there is a president, two vice presidents, a secretary, treasurer, and a herd of parent mentors and engineers. If a team member is having a specific problem with a mentor, we got the president to approach them to sort things out, as well as for authorizing any purchases. The president also officiates over all meetings, which tend to occour at least every two-three days. This helps us keep some semblence of order.
The entire build is led by the team with very helpful suggestions/advice from the engineers. They try their hardest to prevent us from screwing up, but son't actually do the work for us.
The parents arrange a food schedule, rotating each day, so that we don't starve. (they're wonderful...!)
For offseason, we elect heads for the the various segments of public relations and offseason events. So, we have kids in charge of the newsletter, website maintainence, offseason competitions, etc. We're also trying to get a newsletter to run consistently through the build, but I don't know how likely that'll be.
We've found our method to be very effective unless the students and mentors end up clashing over something.
In a nutshell, that's about it.

--Anna