[BobbyVanNess]

Our team has struggled with some of the issues you all have been talking about. One thing with student involvement, is that the students themselves must have the desire to commit to the team, and all of its operations. I am currently a student, and I've see those around me complain about not having enough student involvement (particularly last year), but there have been cleanup meetings after stop build day when i was one of only a few students to attend.

This year, we've been running the team entirely differently, where students have been doing almost all of the prototyping, with mentor assistance on machining. When we have to make a design decision, we discuss it in an open meeting, where our committed students and mentors voice their opinions, and we come to a collective agreement. So far, this has settle all of our problems, instead of polarizing the team on multiple different ideas, and getting hung up on the decision making.

Last year, I think everyone, including our own mentors, realized that we needed to become a more student oriented team. That being said, the students need to take it upon themselves to come in and build their prototypes, get their ideas heard, build a strong knowledge base of FIRST, and understand what is feasible during a 6 week build season.