Adult participation is vital to a team. I appreciate every contribution made by every individual ever involved with the team.
THAT SAID, I must point out that sometimes adults can get a little over-zelous. I've found that adults can whine and complain and pressure people and all that stuff just as much as the students can (if not more!). Like I said, I love our adult members, but somtimes they step out of line. It might be prudent to, on your team, make your lines well defined, and whack anyone (parent and student alike) with pieces of extrusion if they try cross them.
We have one parent who helps orginize and deal with the technical aspects of Chairman's Award stuff and other Public Realtions.
We have one parent who comes in to every meeting to help us build, and "realize" our designs.
We have one parent to does a LOT of our CAD for us, and gets them sent off to the machine shops for us.
We have a couple of other parents that drift in and out at random.
However you choose to structure your team: please please please keep in mind that communication between everybody involved is abosolutely VITAL. I can say that one from experence, and can not stress it enough. Best of luck to you and your team!
