[zachrobo1]

Over the last year, 1002 has been thinking about how to address this problem. One one hand, you want to involve everyone who wants to, but on the other hand you want quality, dedicated people to be on your team.

This year we are trying a new interest group system to try to solve this problem. When anyone joins CircuitRunners, they get to choose an interest group (fabrication, design, programming, electrical, and management). Interest groups meet once a week and allow students to explore these concepts in the context of robotics. Students can propose robotic/tech projects and receive funding and mentoring for their projects. This allows everyone to be able to experience our culture without putting them in a competitive setting.

We then have an application system for students to apply for competition teams (BEST, FTC, offseason FRC, and FRC) if they choose to do so (and most do!). This means that we can be a bit more selective with our competition teams while still allowing as many kids to be involved as possible. So far, its worked great. I compared retention numbers, and we are seeing a 30 member increase (~70% from last year) in people still engaged weekly so far!