[Al Skierkiewicz]

g,
Now that you have grown so large it is important to look at other activities that need student involvement that do not have a 'hands on' robot build. Our first week is simply strategy, as Don pointed out, what does it take to win the game. While the majority of the students, mentors and parents are working on those details, the playing field crew has started to assemble objects and playing field parts. In the mean time, our Chairman's team, our Woodie Flowers submission team, video and animation teams are also working. If we have any real design in the first week, it is surprising. We may prototype during this period but we spend a great deal of time talking over the game and even playing mock matches using students as robots. We start talking the minute the screen goes dark at the kickoff. We continue all through the day until at least 6 PM and then pick it up again on Sunday about noon and go all day. We meet at school each day after that from 5:30-8:30PM until we have a firm strategy and some robot function concepts. During this time, the playing field crew continues to build and purchase parts. We begin building a prototype using 80-20 and the programmers go to town working on the proto as soon as we have a driving base.
As you are a second year team, you do not have a big task in assembling Chairman's presentation material but you should start working on it. Please do not let one of your mentors miss out on a Woodie Flowers award. Make sure you make a nomination and submit the document. You should have some students thinking about t-shirt designs, give aways, pit setups, tool purchases, etc. With a large team, nearly half of our students will not work on or touch the robot. The students who are strictly strategy needs to plan on data collection methods for regionals, assignments for the events, etc.
The most important thing, be flexible. What works for us or someone else might not work for you. Team dynamics change every year so you will need to change as well. And when you are not thinking about the robot or other related items, please spend some time thinking about what you will do next year and the year after. How will you keep this many students involved, where will money come from, how will travel, where will you go?