Quote:
Originally Posted by MysterE
Ok all,
A simple question for the day: At what point should a coach step in and ask members to leave. Obvious points exist..such as grade level problems and the like but I am dealing with a situation that I am a bit more torn over. I have one student who has been a member for two years who has done little to add to the club. Unfortunately, this same member has volunteered for tasks that they have not followed through with. Most recently, this student has volunteered to code our website. A due date was aligned by the organization and it seems as if the member is refusing (procrastinating) to do the work. If this were a company, we'd be reaching the point of dismissal. What says th CD community?
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As much as everyone likes to think of FRC as a simulation for the real world work environment, sometimes you have to remember it isn't. The big difference: Its okay to make mistakes. These are high school kids, thats what high school kids tend to do. It's a learning process. If my team was a company I would have been fired years ago.
If the student volunteers for specific things, he/she is obviously interested in it but may be just lacking some motivation, free time, or countless other things. "Termination" based on this I think would be pretty harsh. Sometimes you have to grab them and take them through the process to get them going. Maybe even bring up the website award (or the new media award?). What worked for our team specifically, we said that we wanted a website specifically to put sponsors on to get more funding (we barely reach registration each year). Someone then stepped up and helped.
I'm under the assumption that you are assigning this as "homework", not to be done during meetings. Try giving him/her time during meetings to get this done, and perhaps some help from other members/mentors. Websites involve more than just code, you need graphics and someone to write content. Maybe he/she is good at the coding but not so much at the other two areas.
Just my 2*(1/100 )