[Al Skierkiewicz]

Nir,
I have not heard of FIRST addressing a specific team size. For the most part, sub teams should be limited to 6-10 members. This allows the work to get done even when team members don't show up but it doesn't make the group so large that there is nothing to do. We have had more than 60 students in a single year. Many of them have no interest in building or wiring the robot. They instead concentrate their efforts on Chairman's Award planning, strategy, video, public relations, animation, community involvement, etc. All team members meet once each week to hear team news, upcoming events and during build, sub team reports. It is during these meetings that forms are passed out, fund raising business is taken care of and grading reports and homework are received or passed to students. We meet all year long and the students receive grades and credit for their participation on this team.

Small teams generally concentrate on robot specific issues but will concentrate on other related problems after the ship date. I have seen teams with as little as three or four students and one teacher. It seems that many teams average about twenty students and consider themselves blessed to have two or three mentors. It seems that each year I hear about more teams trying to limit team size. They do this for a variety of reasons with logistics (budget and travel), and meeting room size being the more predominant factors. Many teams have adopted some form of entrance requirements to limit team numbers. I know of several teams that require an entrance essay that is used for selection. Some use an interview process, some limit participation to two years (or just juniors and seniors) some use a combination of all of these methods and some limit based on GPA. I firmly believe this last method is counterproductive. Some of our brightest students have come from the lower half of the class, only realizing their full potential once on the team. However, maintaining grades while on the team is very important.