Our team has an application to be filled out and turned in (in April I believe?) and then our mentors go through the applications and select next year's team. Everyone wishing to be on the next year team must fill out the application, even past team members. The following information is what I set understand to be how our selective process works (as I am entering in my 3rd year as an FRC member):
After the application process, the team is selected and we have a meeting in the summer to get acquainted and cookout and explain what is expected when being apart of this team. Make sure people know the important stuff such as the fact that they will not be able to participate in any winter sports, such as baseball or basketball (this in itself weeds out many). We explain just how difficult and intense the build will be, but also that there is plenty of fun. We have some meetings throughout the fall, along with the beginnings of our driver tryouts. These meetings aren't mandatory, but they are very educational to new people. Again, this allows more people to drop if they'd like.
However, we try to select people that we believe will not drop out. Most people that have been on the team stay on the team unless they give good reason not to be. Even others, including myself, have non productive first years, but if the mentors believe these students have potential, they are given another year to prove themselves (I did in my second year after a rough first year, and here I am entering my 3rd year). We select based on what the students are interested in and what fields we need more people in. We try not to select senior rookies, as we do not want to become senior heavy and lose all of our experience and men at once. We do select them if we need immediate help in these areas. We try to keep it pretty level on the students benefiting the team and the team benefiting the students. Ultimately, all the students will benefit from the team, but not all students will benefit the team. And I have already said how to get rid of them.
Having a selective process is very important to creating a competitive team. I hope you find your selective process and that your team will prosper from it.
