Quote:
Originally Posted by Kimmeh
It's been hard for our team to get a general consensus on anything like a handbook, which is something I'd love to have. We're a "young" team - out of 14 students, we have 1 sophomore, and 3 seniors, the rest of the team are either freshmen or 8th graders, with 3 of them younger than that. In addition, for over half of them, this is their rookie year. Now, more than ever, I'm going to push for the team to commit to this so that something like this cannot happen again.
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Don't let being a young team stop you. We started our handbook the summer after our second year... and everyone on the team was either new (joined for our summer program) or had only been there the previous year - no one from the first year remained as student members. The two who really got the handbook going were dedicated members who had just graduated (one had been with the team both years, the other only the second year). So being a young team can't hurt. Additionally, that summer and the following school year, I believe we only had one senior on the team.
From your brief description of the mentor organization on the team, it sounds like it could stand to have a section in the handbook. The lead mentor's job isn't to make all the decisions for the team, despite the power trip some people may be on. They are supposed to ensure the smooth functioning of the team as a whole. In this situation, I would have expected the mentor/teacher/coach who worked with the awards team throughout the year to be the one "responsible" for everything dealing with the chairman's presentation - the lead mentor would only get involved if really needed (for example, the students want to meet and get feedback, but the coach wasn't available). Further, without being a very active part of the team, I'm not sure how the lead mentor can really fulfill his responsibilities - yeah, work comes first, but being out of communication for 2 weeks during a 6 week build season is a serious indication that it might be time to pass the responsibilities to someone else and let him take a smaller role on the team.