Any FIRST Team requires a great deal of commitment. It is normal to suffer from "FIRST Fatigue" after the Championship Event. However, this is not an excuse to skip out on your duties to your team. Don't be too hard on your students because I assume none of them have ever done this before. Your team needs a fun event to boost moral. I think the best way to do this is to have a team picnic.
My team organizes a picnic at the end of every season. It works wonders for team morale. We all sit down, eat and reminisce about the year. We give out awards to acknowledge each other. These awards can be serious or inside jokes based around some funny anecdote (A bunch of mentors get stuck in a Houston elevator with a bottle of wine and a case of beer, give them some MOE Green wine glasses). We watch a commemorative videos that team members make (Jake did the best job ever with the many videos set to music he made). We play games as a team (everyone versus Jerome basketball game, can't believe Jerome won
). It is also tradition for the students to prank the engineers. I can't wait to see the video of my Silly String Rampage, although technically I am a mentor
. I guess I am just immature
. 2 years as student and 1 year as a mentor, hope I'll always be a student at heart.
If you already had a picnic, go bowling or something like that. If you haven't had an end of the year picnic I recommend you start the tradition. Start simple, pack a lunch and go to a local park. If the need arises you can make it larger and more elaborate as the years progress. Ours is attend by about 80-100, team member, family member, alumni and sponsors. Encourage everyone to make awards. The amount of time you spend making awards is up to you. I spent a couple hours with Photoshop. Some engineers start building awards months in advance (kinda like Dean's Clock)
Next year you should have a series of pre-build season meetings for team building exercises. FIRST is not about building a robot, FIRST is about building a team. The robot is a reflection of your team. If you build a great team you will build a great bot, even if only your team can see it. You will see positive experiences with your team in every spinning gear. You will want to do any thing you can with your team. Good Luck in these trying times. Hope to see your team return next year!