I helped restructure our team these past two years and we've been very successful in part of this restructuring.
Our team has a Student CEO/Team President and then two vice presidents: one for mechanical and one for public relations. The VPs oversee their "division" but assign tasks to other people to lead.
I was the student CEO this year, and my role was to simply outline a "blueprint" for team goals. I overlooked the technical aspect and ensured the robot had the necessary things we needed to present to the judges and helped with the pit. I wasn't directly involved with the actual building of the bot though. On the PR side, I overlooked nearly every aspect; Scouting, Chairman's, Community Service, Team Relations. I facilitated many of the projects we worked on on the PR side and created a to-do list for the team.
The Mechanical VP overlooked the robot and was directly involved with the robot building. The PR VP worked on Chairman's and assisted me in handling day-to-day affairs for the team.
This system worked great for our team. We have roughly 40 students, give or take. Every team is different. The way it operates, size, mentor support, etc. all differs. Figure out how your team operated in the past.
My opinion the 4-captain theory: Having more than two student leaders who oversee the majority of the team's operations can be extremely difficult and may cause conflict. Simply put, you're going to have too many spoons in one bowl. Figure our who is best to lead the team and have the entire team vote on two captains. Also, keep in mind that although you four are friends, you are trying to create a team that is able to sustain for years to come. In three years, the four captains may clash like our Congress does, and that isn't good for your team's sustainability.
Sorry for the long post! lol.
