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Re: The Imminent Dissolution of Team 2065
I would heavily agree with what most people have said here. FIRST is about inspiration, and when you lose that, you end up losing a team. That being said, there's only so much any one person can do to inspire a team to greatness. If you really think your team is unsustainable, then finding another team to merge with would be a great solution. The individuals on your team who are passionate about the program would get to continue, while the other team would gain some great, motivated individuals.
For other teams/captains/mentors or whoever that are afraid this might happen with their team in the near future, a few suggestions:
1. recruit young. Let the entire school know you're recruiting, but focus your efforts on sophomores and freshmen. If you can recruit 2 freshmen and show them how much fun the team can be, they'll bring 5 friends with them the next year. And another 5 friends the next. By focusing recruitment efforts on the underclassmen, you'll end up getting the upper classmen for free.
2. Have a plan for every meeting. Know what needs to be accomplished, and communicate that to the team members - set reasonable goals that will fill up the entire time. By having enough work for everyone to do, it'll help make sure you don't have some kids sitting off to the side not knowing what to do.
3. Make it fun. The atmosphere in your workspace is just as important as everything else. The students should be excited, they should be able to see progress being made and feel the anticipation for the completed robot. They should want to come back every night to work because they want to, not because something has to get finished. All to often, i hear someone say "oh look, it's almost time to go home" and someone else reply "seriously? we just got here!".
4. Finally, inspiration comes from everyone on the team. In the end, if someone doesn't want to be there, no amount of persuasion is going to inspire them. The real inspiration comes from inside. There aren't magic words that can be said to create inspiration. Only a feeling that comes from deep within that makes you tingle with excitement and anticipation.
We all certainly hope for the best with your team, and that you can get through the current difficulties, and emerge as a bigger, more cohesive team.
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