[GeeTwo]

A charter is nice in specifying mechanics and procedures of the team, but it really has nothing to do with how the team operates. In reality, it all comes down to personalities, politics, and policies. This is true whether you're a tiddlywinks club or a government. The key to keeping an organization healthy is to be ready to have an effective means of managing dissent. These means range from the "big tent" in which the organization recognizes differences but keeps the discussion open to the secret societies in which dissenting or disruptive members are never seen again. Hopefully, your team can find a nice balance between these extremes.

What you may need to do to promote participation among team members is to establish real standards regarding expectations at the various levels of participation. On our team, we have two or three levels of officers (varies from year to year and according to the team dynamics), varsity, junior varsity, and (between spring banquet and fall tryouts) prospective members. The number one rule (unwritten, but strongly enforced) is that all positions except prospective members must be earned, both to rise into them and to hold them.

On our team, officer selection and ranking within officers is decided by the head coach. He definitely consults with the mentors and other officers, and often asks for recommendations, but these are his decisions. Each department (whether technical or business) is assigned a number of varsity positions. When there are vacancies, that department's officers and mentors nominate a JV member for varsity. The head coach has (rarely if ever executed) veto authority. JV is earned at the tryouts from among the previous year's JV and the prospects. Mentors and varsity members present a number of relatively simple to moderate challenges which the JV and prospects must tackle. We select members to the JV based on their attitude, drive, spirit, and interest, then assign members to the various departments based on aptitude and interests. The big distinction between JV and varsity is pretty much like athletics - varsity gets to go to competition as a fully excused educational field trip. JV only goes on Saturday.

When we won Bayou, the school administration told us we could bring 25 members to CMP. Our varsity happened to number 24. We announced that our "wild card" spot would go to the JV member who raised the greatest amount of funds between the two competitions. As a result of the Bayou win and this announcement, we raised as much money in 6 weeks as in the preceding 11 months, if you exclude only the "3 year" donation we received from Ingersoll Rand Foundation to purchase and outfit a trailer. The bottom line is to make membership on a team a position something which must be earned.