[JaneYoung]

Part of addressing the problem is to understand the cycle.
Typically, students are in high school for 4 years, freshman through senior. They enter as freshmen and exist as seniors. Apply that to your team. They enter at one level and exit at another. Think of it as a paddle wheel in continual movement, creating power. Say you have a 4 year student that enters in as a freshman and then cycles up to sophomore and then to junior and then to senior. With each cycle they gain. What do they gain? With good team organization in place that has established sub-teams, apprenticing, training, team leadership - each year is an opportunity to gain more experience, training, and a deeper understanding of the area that student is interesting in and working in.

As the freshman moves on to the sophomore year, a new freshman enters and so there is gain within the cycle. Continual gain and experience. (Apply this to the parent support system. Same thing. They cycle right along with the student members that are their children. The parent support system must have continual gain and experience in their areas, as well.)

If there is no established system in place to take full opportunity of the cycle, then, oftentimes, you will see the huge impact of the seniors graduating, leaving little to nothing in their place. This creates inconsistency and instability within the team. Weakness.

Smart teams identify the makeup of the team, the cycle, and the strengths and weaknesses inherent in that cycle. They then go about building their team to take full advantage of the cycle and to keep it going, gaining strength.

Jane