Quote:
Originally Posted by rocketperson44
Not to badmouth girls of FIRST teams, but I have some doubts about this group of girls' ability to make a robot on their own (four of the five are rookies, and three look like they'll fall into the "lose interest" category lil lavery mentioned) Talking with other team members, I have come to the conclusion that the primary motivation is not the all girls team, but the size of the team. Fortunatly for our city, all high schools in the area have FRC and FVC teams. Unfortunatly, because there is no need for schools to collaborate on these, most of these teams are quite small, about the size of our team last year. This has caused our mentors to view this as normal, and now that we have so many more members, it would help productivity to split the team. The all girl team is viewed as a side benefit. I'll definatly bring this thread up at tomorrow's meeting.
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Be careful not to pre-judge those girls (or anyone else) though. Every year there are members I see walk into interest meetings that I think won't last, then at the end of the year they are among the most attentive, productive, and dedicated members of the team. Before her first meeting a member confessed to her mother that she was afraid that it was all going to be geeks and she wouldn't fit in or like it. This cheerleader would eventually become team captain, and later said to her mother that "I'm a geek too, and I LOVE it!" Some of the people you fear you will lose may emerge as stars among your team, while some dedicated members may burn out and quit. In other words, don't count your chickens before they hatch, even if the shell seems broken.
As for the team size, 21 is a perfectly acceptable number of students, especially given that it is still the beginning of the year and likely you may lose a few members. Some teams have 40, 50, or even more students on a single team (I know one that has enough freshman each year to fill all the volunteer spots at their off-season event
). You can still find plenty of jobs for all the students, especially if you branch off into other aspects of the competition (as Rohith mentioned), such as CAD, website, and animation. Many teams also have many ancillary groups, such as dedicated finance, outreach, chairman's, or video teams that focus on supporting the team through activities other than the robot itself (or participate in both the robot and the ancillary task).
There are, however, certain definite benefits to having two competition teams. It definitely creates more work to be spread around, and each individual could gain more of a direct impact on the finished product. In addition it allows for greater exploration of different designs and technologies if each robot is unique. As well as you have twice the people gaining valuable pit and on-field experience at the events.