These ideas sound great!
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Originally Posted by Mike
Got to thinking about it some more, and I started to realize that maybe having each member work on a personal project isn't the answer. What if each member pitched an idea, then the group decided which one we should work on. We'd build it and then either donate to a person who needed it, or if it was good enough, pitch the prototype to a company. The main problem I see with this whole idea though, is the use of machinery. Having mentors there solves this problem, but asking a mentor to be there during 6 weeks is a lot, never mind year round...
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What if we grouped the teams based on their home regionals? Each group of teams would hold a meeting once a month (location rotating at each of the teams' place if they can), with a few people from each team ("representatives"). Anybody who has an idea for a project would bring the idea up, and if it's going to be put into action, someone is put in charge of the project and a meeting would be called specifically for that project.
The representatives from each team would go home to their team with the project ideas, and anybody from their team interested in a project would contact the person in charge of the project, and go to the project meeting.
This way, instead of team 1351 doing a drivetrain project over the summer, it's a bunch of silicon valley mechanical people doing a drivetrain project. You have more specialized people working on the project, who will all benefit from working on it. Also if you're the only person on your team who's interested in pursuing a certain project, that hopefully won't stop you. It's a more communal effort, and we can get to know the teams in our area a lot more.
As to access to machinery, etc; a team (with machinery or access to someone's like a sponsor) could open up and say that a project team could come use their facilities if they need. Or that their facilities are open on Tuesdays from 2-5, please tell us if you're coming.
I'm getting really excited about this idea now! i'm definately in!
~Stephanie
Team 1351