[AZDevilRobot]

Hi again,

First of all, thank you guys for the advice. It's nice to see so many teams willing to help out a team that is still growing.

However, I have a couple of clarification statements about my team. First, my school actually only consists of about 150 students. We cap each grade at 60 but people have left without replacements. About half participate in clubs and sports and thus, many students cross over between clubs. With a relatively small number of students, no club ever asks their students to choose. They choose to work around schedules instead. Only one club ever meets on a day and during the off season, attendance is high since robotics occupies Wednesday and we only meet that one day a week. When build season hits, Wednesday is still the highest day but people are out other days to attend their clubs. Maybe my wording in the initial post was harsh or misinterpreted but we do have decent dedication. Our rule is you attend your other commitment first, and since robotics lasts longer than other clubs, you can come to robotics late. The "little work" that I mentioned only happens at the point when the two clubs overlap. Once everybody is bakc in the same room, productivity goes up. We do have people though that come and stay the entire time after school and these people get lead roles since they are the most dedicated. We have talked to the lead I mentioned in the OP and they have started to attend more regularly now that basketball season is over. Other people also picked up the slack and that team is moving again.

When people show up, even if it is late, they do put in the effort. It actually happens that the people with other commitments work harder than those that stay because they feel they have to make up the time. Every member in the club knows that robotics is a lot of work and knowing everyone's schedule, we usually keep our robot minimal. We sometimes feel it is better to have one super component than three or four "eh" components. By keeping the goals manageable, we can still have fun, make something we are proud of and everyone can manage their responsibilities.

As for accountability, our advisor recently created a contract stating that in order to be in the club, you must pay a fee and put in the effort. At his discretion, he can remove anybody from the day's meeting or the team(which has never happened) and their money will not be refunded. As our cost is $95, people have a bit of an incentive to work when they are in the club. With the regional, we never bar anyone as everyone does put the effort in when they can. That being said, the drive team only consists of people who have put the most effort in.

As I said, maybe my OP was considered harsh or I worded it wrong but the problem is not as bad as I made it sound. I was only wondering if there would be a way to continue moving along at a steady pace and not lose steam while still allowing everyone to honor their other commitments. After reading everyone's posts, it appears that we have been following some of the ideas posted all along. We have a core dedicated group and every member helps out whenever they can. We don't bite off more than we can chew and are still able to create some amazing robots.

Once again, thank you for the advice and best of luck to all teams.