[GeeTwo]

Sometimes, a team is so successful at some aspect of its operations that it runs into "problems" that most teams would love to have. Even more than with most problems, "FIRST world problems" are best viewed as an opportunity. What "FIRST world problems" have you turned to an advantage, and how?

Here's our story: Team 3946 did a bit of a PR blitz prior to Bayou 2014 (Aerial Assist). As a result, several teachers had the webcast of Bayou on during class on Friday. During the fall of 2014, we brought our t-shirt and mini-football launching air cannon onto the running track during several football games; we flew the robotics banner (which is intentionally aligned with the other school teams' colors and names; even our Navy JROTC has "Tiger Navy" on their PT uniforms). In late 2014, we realized that we had more people interested in joining robotics than our facilities could possibly handle (80 vs 40-50). We decided to hold "tryouts" to whittle the numbers down to about 50. We set up tryouts that looked like aptitude tests in programming, numerical drawing, cutting pieces, writing directions, and a number of other tasks. We graded students both on aptitude/ability and on attitude. We selected members based on attitude and asigned them to departments based on aptitude (with expressed preferences considered). OH WHAT A DIFFERENCE! The 2015 team was about the same size as the 2014 team, but the attitude was incredibly different. I originally approached "tryouts" as a way to prevent overcrowding, but one week after tryouts were over, I hope we never have to go back to a "take everyone" condition again.