[PayneTrain]

We are trying to cope with our rapid expansion in a number of ways while we look for better, more permanent solutions.

Fall meetings are held multiple times a week, but members not on team leadership only have to show up to one meeting. This gives us more manageable meetings of around 30-40 people instead of meetings with 70-80. The drawbacks come from repeat meetings for members that have already been at one meeting, but there's always something to do besides just meet for the lecture/activity for a fall meeting so we can find something for them to do.

We are instituting team dues for the first time in the team's known history. It's not a barrier to entry for anyone financially because we can cover in-need students, but it will make people decide if they want to be a part of the team or the team to be a part of their resume.

Our winter meetings will have a meta-structure to it where Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday shop sessions will probably be limited to a certain number of students. This allows us to help maximize student engagement and passively encourage students to find a balance between the team and their schoolwork.

We face current issues with mentor bandwidth (we have four dedicated coaches and a number of parent mentors, but availability is sort of a whirlwind) that make it difficult to add programs that help engage newer students like an FTC/VRC/JV FRC division. It's also difficult for our current space to handle large numbers of students. Working in the school provides us with a comfortable level of security and predictability, but working out of ~1100 sq feet of shared space makes it difficult to properly involve all team members at once.

It's great to have such high involvement, but it's important that you look for long term solutions to a size problem while plotting out short term plans.