[Carol]

The roles and expectations on our team are very defined at competition. Every student (and mentor) on our team has an assigned job: pit crew, mobile pit crew, ambassador, awards, safety captain, scouting, with some overlap in jobs (contrary to what it seems, we only have 30-35 students each year).

Pit crew are the main students who should be in the pit, working on the robot, and are selected on basis of their mechanical/electrical/programming skill. The mobile pit crew are available as extra hands in the pit if needed, but their main job is to help out other teams, particular rookie teams, that need help in their pits. (At regionals, especially the early ones, it is surprising how many teams need help. And how many teams that jump in to help them.) Ambassadors are just that - there is always at least one in the pit at all times to talk with visitors and judges. Awards are in charge of selecting and awarding our MOEawards to other teams. Safety captain is obvious. Scouting crew are assigned matches to watch and summarize, so that every match is covered. Everyone (except one ambassador) is expected to be in the stands during our matches. But in between our matches, they all disperse to their assigned jobs. (And at Atlanta we have a schedule to cover the Hall of Fame display as well).

The system is challenging, and takes a bit of organization, but works very well as long as everyone steps up and does their part. We ask a lot of our students but they always live up to our expectations. Every year I'm more proud of what they do.