[Jessi Kaestle]

Where I have seen the most success, is for certain aspects of the team to be selective, but to allow anyone with interest to join the team. Travel team, pit crew, drive team, chairman’s team, leadership positions; those positions all benefit from being selective. However I have found that teams that are selective on who can join the team often selects students based on how well they are doing in school (grades, honors classes, school leadership positions, etc.) and that often excludes the students who are best benefited by the program.

Now to play devil’s advocate and give you the pro’s. If you are selective with the team, you will often end up with a better group of driven dedicated students that will not waste time and resources. It allows you to have a smaller team, which has the potential to have cost benefits, if you provide anything to the students (shirts, food, travel…). If you are limited on mentors, it allows the mentors to be more focused on key aspects of the game/robot/team, as opposed to making sure everyone is on task. If you only select the best students, then your demographics in terms of going to college will likely be better, which will make it easier to petition to the school district for more money.

Obviously, all of these opinions, both pro and con, are generalizations and do not apply to every team. You know your team best, and are the only one that can truly understand which statements have the potential to apply to your team.