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Originally Posted by elsenor
Thank you for the advice. Unlike most other teams, it just seems too difficult to have sub-teams because our members don't read the rules or actually read the weekly e-mails we send out. So in the end its just the 10 few people who design/ build the robot. But, a lot of our members come to competition and they are clueless about what's going on. Any ideas on how to stop this madness?! I think this is mostly a result of us not doing anything until January.
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Ouch! That sounds like a system in desperate need of revision. It certainly helps to keep tabs on the team during the off-season with team-building events like a team picnic, field trips, volunteering at FLL and VEX events, attending off-season competitions, fundraising, building challenges, website building, ultimate frisbee days (quite pertinent this year), community awareness outreach (the lightbulb sales actually work quite well. Out team was skeptical but tried it this year with incredible results), presentations at sponsors both returning and potential, bringing your robot to county fairs and things like that, and what ever your team likes to do together
During the season, it really helps if you keep attendace and have benefits for members who attend. For instance, our team is waaaaay to big to travel with everyone (we have about 80 members) so if they don't attend meetings, they take a hit on consideration for traveling team. Once they learn how fun FIRST is, hopefully they'll keep coming back and if students outside of the team learn it's fun, they'll want to join too (hence our large team size
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My first step, if I were in this situation, would be to put out a survey to your members and ask them what you could do to interest them in robotics more. Then, have another survey in your school and see how many students have actually heard of your robotics program. Things like posters on the walls, pictures in classrooms, posted tournament dates, and things like that can quickly raise awareness. Our team even has a scrolling marquee sign above the robotics room with our meeting times, tournament dates, and encouragements to join. I'd try some of those ideas to start down the path toward a large, excited team