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Originally Posted by Chief Hedgehog

We just had our first all-call for robotics - and we had nearly 30 new faces in the seats. We only have 24 returning members. I know that some have gone through 'cuts' or build JV teams, but we are entering our 3rd season and I don't think that we could handle that many kids (we don't have the resources or the mentors) and cutting kids would bring in bad publicity for our program that is funded only through sponsors.

I would like to hear some more creative ways to keep kids involved.

THanks!

We're in the same boat. We're usually a 15-person team, with an average of 4 people at any build meeting, but we had our first meeting today and had a total turnout of 31 people, four of whom were veterans.

We're considering dividing up the meetings by days of the week so that not everyone will have to show up every day, but everyone can still do significant work on the robot. Our robots in the past have tended to be too simple to necessitate more than four people at a time working on it. We're planning to use more advanced construction methods as well this year to compensate for the extra free person-hours. In addition, this will probably be the first year where we'll have a dedicated "Media and business" team for those who are so inclined. We may even have some awards submissions.

(Also, don't forget that by week 2, 25-50% of the team will have decided that it's too hard and will "leave" until week 6.)