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Unread 24-03-2008, 11:45
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Re: Elite (invite only) FIRST teams

Quote:
Originally Posted by CraigHickman View Post
Hey folks:

So I'm going to be moving on to college next year (don't know exactly where yet, we shall see), and I'm looking to bring FIRST with me. One of my major choices does not have a team nearbye, and I think it would be fun to start one. However, my idea for the team is a little bit different than most. I have a feeling I'm going to catch a good bit of flack for this idea, but I'd like to get a sounding of it.

The team that I may found would most likely require an application or interview process in order to join. The team would be a very fast moving, highly competitive environment, meant to simulate a real world business as closely as possible. In order to have a robot design approved, a member must "sell" it to the Board (which would be senior students and mentors). This would (hopefully?) make the team a VERY competitive team, that could be relied upon to bring a fearsome robot to each competition.

That idea being said, I was hoping to gather a bit of information on teams that may already have some sort of similar system in place. My main focus is currently on requiring an application/interview or not, and so it would help a ton if people knew of any teams that have this going already.

Are there any invite only, or application required teams out there?
If so, why do they only allow successful applicants on the team, and how does it help them?
Do they have a better chance in competition?
About how many members are part of these teams?
I think it sounds like a really cool idea but you have some things to consider, as many have mentioned above. First of all your college grades are really going to come first. That first year you are going to be overwhelmed with the social aspects of college, having all that free time and trying to keep on top of your grades. It's going to be hard to start your own FIRST team that year, so you might want to just take that year to work with the school and let them know what you're interested in doing, because it also will really help to have a schools backing.

With that said, the whole application/interview process can work, but I don't know that it's something you'd be able to implement right away, for a couple of reasons:
1) Initial interest: Our robotics team in its first year had 14 kids, 8 who actually did anything. If we had an application that first year I doubt we would have had more than 4 if it would be the type of application it sounds like a team like yours would need.
2) Continuing interest: That first year it's overwhelming enough just to try to build a robot. Add the competitive business aspect to it and I think you could end up with a lot of uninterested kids. I think a team like the one you're envisioning is going to have to take baby steps towards that vision every year in order to not frighten kids away.

Coming from a very small team that turned into a very big team, a couple other thoughts...

I personally think having a "board" who votes on robot design is a great idea. Leave the ultimate choice to the people who know the most about what will work and what won't. That still gives everyone a chance to have their ideas heard but allows for greater success, imho.

An application can only work if you have enough interest that you can afford to be turning people away. We would have taken any help we could get that first year, and the next year we had too much help for anyone to do anything useful. You have to be the judge of when your team would be ready to implement an application.

The number of students involved in teams requiring an application can vary greatly. Mine had 30 or so. It kind of depends on whether you want to have a business subteam, how you are dividing up the robot building, a number of factors. When we implemented an application I don't know that it went any better, mainly because even if you're gung ho about robotics at the beginning of the year and fill out a great application, it doesn't guarantee that you're going to contribute as much as your enthusiasm suggests. We had to ask a few people to leave.

Another thing is that as a college student starting a team, assuming you don't end up living in the same area you went to college, you're going to need to build a model of sustainability that works well in a college environment... your mentors, unlike on many teams, are probably only putting in a max 4 year commitment, and you need to build the framework of the team taking this fact into account.

Good luck!
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Last edited by laurenlacy : 24-03-2008 at 12:11. Reason: forgot something
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