Quote:
Originally Posted by Bharat Nain
(From original poster) Were I to remove every student that isn't motivated I would have 5 students. 5 students does not make a team. As I read your responses and weigh with what I know... then I look at your team sizes... we really do not have the motivation.
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Five students make a very good team if it's an FTC or Vex team -- 10 max, 5 is optimal. I would take 5 committed, enthusiastic students over a dozen half-hearted ones any day.
FTC and Vex teams are very cost effective -- about $1500 to start up an FTC team, and less than $1000 to start up a Vex team. If you have extra funds, you can buy extra kits so you have a kit for every 2-3 students. The task is very manageable with small numbers, but if the numbers grow, you can always have multiple teams -- I know of schools that have 10 teams of 3-4 students each. But if the numbers fluctuate wildly, you can still have a program -- one or two teams in low years, 5-10 teams in popular years.
A couple years ago, I had a Vex team of 5. I asked if they were interested in approaching a nearby FRC team of 6 that had struggled with members the previous year to see if we could join. Their answer was, "No, we'd rather do Vex, because we all get to put our hands on the robots every time. If we join the other team, they might only let us watch." Since that time, the numbers in our club have doubled. Every time we add ~3 members, we buy another kit ($300-400) so that everyone gets a chance to build. The kits are reusable from year to year, so if we don't add members, our equipment costs are mainly to replace broken parts. We spend very little in years that we don't expand or go to the World Championship (about $300/year for administrative/tournament fees and replacement parts).
I've watched FRC teams from afar but never been on one, so I don't know how much of a let-down it would be to move from FRC to a smaller program. But it seems that having an FTC or Vex team would keep robotics alive at the school, which benefits the students, while requiring less money and mentoring. Perhaps with the smaller numbers, a few (but not all) of your mentors could be reassigned to another location without any robotics program at all. I'm sure that another school would be very grateful.