[chmorroni]

Pick one thing, and do it well.

Last year, our failing point was trying to design a robot that could do everything. We wanted it to have a 50-point climb and a full-court shooter. We didn't have our final climber built until the day of bag-and-tag. 3 hours before the deadline, in our first test of the mechanism, the cables broke, and we realized that the design wouldn't work. Our shooter, designed to be on top of a robot with a low CoG, did not work as a FCS because we had to turn the robot around after loading 3 disks, to fire the shooter.

Also, know the rules by heart before the second day. The night of kickoff, the game rules are your only companion until you know them backwards and forwards. This goes for every member of the team. That said, always have a copy of the rule book handy for rule checks and other references, especially during the design process. Before you even start designing and prototyping an idea, make sure it is within the rules.

It is also best if you make diagrams and drawings of some of the rules for the robot (size, weight, wire gauges, etc.) for quick reference during the designing and building of the robot.

Also, leaders and older members, delegate, delegate, delegate. You should never have idle hands/minds at meetings. There is always something that needs to be done, so, if there is someone standing around, either you need to take a step back and let someone else do what you are doing, or you need to find something for them to do. Have a list of random jobs going into a meeting, so you can assign them to idle people.

Teach new and young members, and have them work on the robot a lot! If you have a lot of seniors that do everything, there will be no one next year that know what they are doing. On top of that, what is the point of joining a robotics team if you don't get to do anything. It is a learning experience for everyone, so let it be just that.