[blueWarrior]

Hi,

My team is also completely reorganizing because last year was our first year and we didnt have too much time to worry about these things.

We changed our team name from RoboBlue Warriors to ArchAngel Robotics.

We too have our own little constitution, except we call it the ArchAngel Doctrine. Its basically a 15 page outline of every aspect of the teams changes. It lists everything from a new team hierarchy, fundraising campaigns, target awards, our mission, how meetings and build sessions will be run etc. At the end of the 2003 FIRST season our team met and compiled a list of everything we want changed and things that went wrong. This doctrine comprises a large chunk of the things we found went wrong.

While writing it I made sure and stressed the use of pragmatic theory and rationalism. Teams tend to get excited and add extra things that will actually slow, or in the worst case receed the teams development. Our doctrine is much more complex and rational then I had originally imagined.

Suggestion: the hardest part of reorganizing a team is putting the outlines in place and reinforcing them. In this doctrine we list exactly the steps and dates that these changes wwould occur. It starts at the beginning of the school year (in 13 days) when our team will have our first recruiting session. The students will have to submit a digital registration form and from that point we, the team leaders, can review, accept and decline anyones entrance into the team. This ensures we get the top students who we know will help the team succeed. Once the students are in place I plan to print off copies of our ArchAngl Doctrine.

I outlined and organized the doctrine so that particular aspects of development are kept within each team division. So under the media and marketing team division you would find the complete plan of our fundraising, jursey design etc. This allows students to know exactly what the team is targeting for. The students are given a copy and one is always stored in the robotics room at the school for reference. A copy is always available at team meetings for reference.

A major part of these changes is reinforced and kept track of by teachers and the use of an action register system.

Once we have our second meeting and the students know what is expected we begin growth and expansion of a team.

So basically not only have we listed the key components of our team but we have completely documented every aspect and plan for its growth and have applied ideas that will ensure it will succeed.

We have also referred to other important online references developed by teams and have summarized all their hints and tricks into one system.

Hope this helps and best of luck with your team next year.