[GCentola]

Having some sort of student leadership structure is important, but forming a "council" of veteran students may not be the best way to go about it. On 1126, we have a student-elected group of student leaders that work with mentor leaders throughout the season.

As far as deciding what goes on the robot, that comes down to strategy. Randomly forming a group of people doesn't sond like it would be as effective as strategy needs to be, and selecting who is "invited" may divide the team. Us 1126 folks have a strategy subteam which consists of the Drive Team, some lead mentors and some students who are usually good about reading the rules, but it is usually open to those who want to join (those interested in tryong out for the Drive Team are usually encouraged to join). Its is this Strategy Team that comes up with a few ways we want to play and then pitches them to the team as far as what functions we need on the robot.

So: short answer = have a team that does influence decisions as to what the robot will have but make sure there is some method behind it.

Let me know if anything needs clarifying! Im sure many other members of CD also have some valuble input!