[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by skiswitch6

Our team had that problem for a lot of years where FIRST was associated with being some freaky genius (and sometimes that's the case)

But as much as I hate to admit it our team developed into little groups much like a whole high school social setup. It has helped us gain more members but obviously some groups don't get along as much as we'd like. This happen with any other team?

Stoners and more "popular" people in the machine shop- pretty closed group not many people in or out

"Geeks" in software

Quiet kids you barely know are there- Electrical- Usually somewhere in the middle of the social food chain

Lazy immature kids in CAD- Usually those who are constantly gaming or just not doing much.



And just to clarify I don't mean to be disrespectful to any of these groups or discipline areas, thats just how things seemed to work out for us.

Overall thought it has helped get rid of that "i'm not smart enough" thing because theres something for everyone to do because people know that what "groups" they'll fit into, which while it isn't ideal it helps students who otherwise wouldn't have joined get involved in a great program.

There are ways to work with the cliques/groups and help the team build itself into a stronger more cohesive team. It takes work and effort and desire. You can do searches using key words like team-building or spend some time looking through some of the forums here in CD. General is good and so is Team Organization. If you are interested send me a PM and I'll point you to a few threads. There are also resources in the FIRST website such as an excellent sampling of team handbooks/manuals. I was just looking at the list of FRC Hall of Fame teams and 151 is one of them, winning the Chairman's in 1995. How cool is that!

Jane