Members per team vs members who actually work

[Armando Gonzalez]

Well the title says it all. How many people do you have on your team and how many of them actually work?

For us, well, we have around 15 members of which 3-5 work hard on the project and the rest just eats pizza and don't contribute much.

It may sound kind of rude, but it would be nice knowing how the other teams work out.

Oh and please post how many people you have on your FIRST team.

[josecruz]

You just gotta love the slackers, eh?

I love my team!

[Deacon Blues]

Well all the engineers are always working. PR, however, not so much. We run out of things to do, so it generally becomes "hey clancy let me drive your car" or "oh man! vinyl machine! window stickers!" pretty quickly. I mean, when we work we do a whole lot and I do a good bit as the overall director of PR, but we certainly have a good bit of downtown to go trying out new taco bell meals.

[Lil' Lavery]

There's an old saying that applies pretty well to most reasonably sized FIRST teams that goes "20% of the people do 80% of the work".

[Armando Gonzalez]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

There's an old saying that applies pretty well to most reasonably sized FIRST teams that goes "20% of the people do 80% of the work".

I agree 100%.

[Athleticgirl389]

From the 2007 team, we had 30 students. At the beginning they all worked. Then they complained and got bored and come crunch time, maybe 7 were full out working on the robot or anything for that fact.

2008 team, however, looks to be VERY promising for Team 102 - a returning number of about 20-25 students with at least 14 new members who seem to be VERY dedicated as of now.

[115inventorsam]

115 has a huge team, as of this past season, we had 90+ members, and we expect to have at least that same amount this year.
And you guys don't know how relieved I am to hear that so many teams suffer from the same problem.
I can't exactly pinpoint the percentage of members that are dedicated to the team, since Engineering works separate from Operations.
But anyways, our huge problem is that our Electrical division don't have enough to do while they wait for the Mechanical division to build the robot. So when we do need them, they're gone!

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

There's an old saying that applies pretty well to most reasonably sized FIRST teams that goes "20% of the people do 80% of the work".

I agree with that 100%!

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

There's an old saying that applies pretty well to most reasonably sized FIRST teams that goes "20% of the people do 80% of the work".

That applies to life in general.
Like Dean said "Life isn't fair."

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

There's an old saying that applies pretty well to most reasonably sized FIRST teams that goes "20% of the people do 80% of the work".

This is true for the first 80% of the time from my experience in academia and industry, regardless of how motivated a group is. Often times in the beginning when ideas are being thrown around there's little work to actually do, or some work is dependent upon other work to be completed first. If you don't have an idea, then sometimes you just don't have an idea or someone else thought of it first ... not much you can do there.

I agree that managing a team is a really tough job because a good manager somehow keeps everyone semi-busy even when they're "part of the robot" isn't ready to be worked on yet. I'd say the last 1-2 weeks of this past build season 100% of the students touched their part of the robot for several hours a day.

[josecruz]

Originally Posted by Deacon Blues

Well all the engineers are always working. PR, however, not so much. We run out of things to do, so it generally becomes "hey clancy let me drive your car" or "oh man! vinyl machine! window stickers!" pretty quickly. I mean, when we work we do a whole lot and I do a good bit as the overall director of PR, but we certainly have a good bit of downtown to go trying out new taco bell meals.

Sounds like the life of a PR student is extremely arduous.

Eh, programming is pretty much the same thing. You can't really do much until the team finishes building the robot. Of course, we like to contribute to the process, but as programmers, we find little to do besides brainstorming and investigating neat concepts before the robot is finished.

[Pavan Dave]

What do you mean by work? There are students that do spend all of their time on robot stuff and then there are students who design posters and work with spirit that don't do as much robot stuff due to their own choices.

Also I have to agree with Sean and his saying of 20% of people doing 80% of the work because I have witnessed it.

[Armando Gonzalez]

Originally Posted by Pavan

What do you mean by work? There are students that do spend all of their time on robot stuff and then there are students who design posters and work with spirit that don't do as much robot stuff due to their own choices.

Also I have to agree with Sean and his saying of 20% of people doing 80% of the work because I have witnessed it.

I define Work as the availability and willingness to help the team achieve the different goals.

If a person does not tie a single screw, but is always cheering for the team, getting sponsors and caring about all the members; he is working a ton!

[Scott Carpman]

PR- because engineers can't write.

[r.pesquera]

This year it's starting to look bad for us. we're barely 4 working people on the team. I bet y'all we'll make it to the nationals though.

[waiakea2024]

Heh heh this is funny.