[Vermeulen]

We have a student leadership committee with the president and vice president, and captains for electrical, mechanical, business, and IT. The safety captain is also included. The students usually meet one day per week during build season with a group of mentors to discuss what still needs to get done, and what we need to look out for.

We try to do offseason projects to teach the students things. Even just designing something can be hugely beneficial: students can learn how to use the CAD software, become familiar with the design process, and learn to do the math associated with things without ever turning a bolt. In respect to not having students ask "what is that", I'm not sure whether that's about tools or cross-training team members. If it's about tools, you could have someone who's familiar with the tools and the safety procedures around them teach people to use them safely. In a perfect world, the veteran students will teach the rookies. That's how I learned to use the tools. In respect to cross-training, we try to occasionally have team captains tell the entire team what progress has been done on the robot, either at a meeting, or through emails.

About scheduling effectively, we try to break up the build season into weeks, and post every task that needs to get done during that week on a whiteboard at the front of the build site. We haven't had too much luck with the schedule being followed, though.