[IronicDeadBird]

Originally Posted by AZDevilRobot

Hey guys,

I was just wondering, for any small teams out there (for reference, mine is about 20 members) how do you best utilize your members and how do you handle commitment? We have tried to split up our members into teams but when a team is only three members and the lead is usually at another club or work, it does not really work too well. Also, on certain days when half the club is involved in another organization, very little work gets done since few people are there. We can't really ask anyone to choose between robotics and sports or other clubs but building a robot in six weeks requires a lot of attendance. Right now we just have people come when they can but I am wondering if there may be another system. Thanks.

The other system I can think of is mandatory hours of commitment to the team. This is by far one of the biggest and most important events for a robotics team (IMHO) so it should be top priority. I know a lot of teams start with the foot in this and then inch forward. Remind the students that actual cash money is going into this and that without the appropriate work to utilize all the money put in the money won't be there next year, and instead of working on robots you will be working on fund raising.
Also if your team Leads aren't reliable maybe they shouldn't be leads.
You absolutely can ask if they choose between robotics or another club because other clubs will ask the same students to choose as well. So its fair game to me and in the end that is how the real world works, when you join the workforce you are committed to something and you can't really drop that for other responsibilities.
Few questions I have
May I ask what your building access looks like?
What times do you normally meet?
How do you divide people up?
Whats up with your mentors how are they doing?
Can you work remotely through things like Skype and Google Hangouts?
Why does this other organization need 10 people every week that seems to be a lot of man (or woman) power?
Do you set goals for days and really push for them to get done or do you enforce they get done?