[bf2416]

Team 4058 from Union County is also a small team with about ten members. Our school has about 450 students on a good day. We are in a small farming community, so mechanical solutions were not a large problem. Our biggest obstacles were funding (hard to get sponsors in a small town) and programming. Those two obstacles, coupled with the fact we are a rookie team, led to a slightly stressful, and at times hostile build season. We had a good time, however, and grew closer as a group.

I am the head programmer and I work with maybe one other person, depending on the day. I know I had to teach myself the basics of labview very quickly, and be able to explain what I was doing to the other part-time programmer. That was difficult, but thankfully we caught on quickly.

Other than the programming department, everyone on the team did a little of everything, such as design, rough CAD, field building, robot build, and various business operations. I personally like being on a smaller team because I get the chance to learn about many other aspects of robotics, not just programming.

I personally am glad I got the chance to participate in FIRST and I am also looking forward to next year. I have already looked at other drive systems (we are using a simple tank drive this year). Looking forward to the Boilermaker Regional in a couple of weeks.

That's my take on being on a small team for any that cares.