List of specialist jobs for pre-season

[Chi Meson]

I've learned in my short time with FIRST that a really good team has a job for each student member of the team. At regional competitions, when a huge team of 60+ students marches through the field during award ceremonies, I can't help but wonder "What the heck do all those kids do for their team?"

My goal for our team next year is to make sure that everyone knows, by October, what they are expected to do for the team before the build season begins. This list does not include leadership positions (captains, chiefs) but specific duties that could be taken on by any member, captain or otherwise.

I've already gotten feedback from other coaches and mentors, and I would hardly claim this list as wholly original, but I'd really like to hear what people in this forum have to say, especially if they think any of these jobs are either"crucial" or "unimportant." Let me know if I have missed any (this is "Pre-season," remember; build-season/competition duties are a different list).

If your team has also created such a list of jobs, I'd love to see it; please mention the number of students on the team. I expect to have 24 "actual" members next year (as opposed to "occasional" members).

If in your experience, as student or mentor, you have found a specific job or duty that is crucial, highly beneficial, or even a "kinda nice addition," I'd love to hear about it.

Anyway, our list of specialists is attached as a .doc file .

TIA

[DonRotolo]

A noble goal indeed. I am not sure if you can get students to pigeonhole (=limit) themselves so narrowly. One thought might be for several students to take turns at some of the less fun jobs (like Tool Specialist) as 'payment' for having a 'fun' job.

Also, you October limitation is too severe: Shoot for early December.

I offer an example of how 1676 prepares new students: We have them build a robot. The drivetrain team builds a drivetrain, chassis builds a rolling chassis, electrical wires it, pneumatics plumbs it, programming...well, you get the idea.

By Mid-November we have a working robot.

The more experienced students guide the process, mentors define the concept (cutting the "concept" phase from a week to an intense day), and when we are done, everyone understands exactly what they need to do to build the 'real' robot come January.

[Chi Meson]

Thanks for the input, Don. How many students are regulars at your meetings during pre-season?

[rsisk]

Add to list: PDF Specialist - A student responsible for converting Word documents to PDF or Google DOC format before posting to ChiefDelphi

[O'Sancheski]

Very good idea. I will pass this on to my team.

Wooo. 300th post.

[Chi Meson]

Originally Posted by rsisk

Add to list: PDF Specialist - A student responsible for converting Word documents to PDF or Google DOC format before posting to ChiefDelphi

Excellent advice, rsisk! I think that alone is what makes a team a great team. Chairman's here we come! ;p

[rsisk]

Originally Posted by Chi Meson

Excellent advice, rsisk! I think that alone is what makes a team a great team. Chairman's here we come! ;p

I'm detecting a hint of sarcasm in that response so let me add something more substantial...

I would probably have a separate specialist for Chairman's Award. It is distinct enough from Imagery and Spirit awards to require a different type of person. You need someone that can write. So have a RCA, WFFA, DLA specialist (Chairman's, Woodie Flowers, Deans List).

You need a community outreach specialist to reach out to businesses, other schools, community groups to spread the message of FIRST

Fundraising specialist. Writes grants, develops fundraising forms, manages fundraising activities.

There you go, that should make up for my flippant answer earlier

[Chi Meson]

Thanks, in earnest this time. I had not included a Chairman's specialist since we have (or we are going to have) a Chairman's sub-team, but I am adding a "writer" to the list and separating the various awards as you suggested.

I want to ask again, if anyone is on one of those teams with 50+ students, what is done to manage them all? My plan for next year is to limit the number to "24" (but allow up to 30). Even this year with only 18 active students (10 of them "really active") there was still a lot of kids standing around not knowing what to do. This list was my remedy.

Red flags, anyone?

[Unicorn_Knight]

Let me just say I feel like all of those small teams are at a terrible disadvantage having to compete with these huge teams you mentioned.

However, looking at your specialist list, I find it a little funny that my small team of 14 has something extremely similar to it. For all of those tiny teams out there trying to organize themselves, here's an example of how we function:

• Administrative Student (in charge of extra fundraising, recruiting, basically organizing anything that needs to be organized. This job should be two students, but it can be managed by one if neccessary.)

• Creative Student (in charge of designing t-shirts, hoodies, buttons, etc.)

• Head Scout

• Chairman's Award Crew (Usually two students)

• Programming Captain

• Mechanical Captain (doubles as Pit Boss)

• Electrical Captain

All of those jobs are designated to 6 of our upperclassmen, while the underclassmen are each assigned to those girls to learn from them and eventually take over their jobs when they graduate. This system is extremely new, but it's proved to be successful.

My only further comment would be that the Administrative responsibilites should really be divided. Originally we had our two student founders each take on a section of that, but last year the job somehow became combined when they graduated.

[OSU_Springer]

Our team (677 - Murphy's Outlaws) runs somewhat similar to those already mentioned. We actually have two teams, one of mentors and one of students. This is done due to the HS students being mentored by a Ohio State collegiate group. We have the following structure:

Team Leads (College & HS) - Usually 2-3 people from both groups, responsible for all administrative tasks and keeping people on task. College leads make final decisions on design when subteams need advice or can not come to a conclusion.

CDTs (Component Design Teams) - Both College mentors and HS students broken down to these sub-teams. Each sub-team has its own lead person (both collegiate and HS).

Chassis - Responsible for designing and building the chassis and drivetrain
Hardware- Responsible for all electrical and pneumatic components
Software - Responsible for writing and testing all software/code
Mechanism - Responsible for the design and construction of the game manipulator(s)

We also have other sub-teams that borrow people occasionally from these aforementioned CDTs for Awards, PR, Business (Marketing), etc.

Our team typically numbers 30-40 girls and 10-15 mentors. We typically build two robots (one for practice) and two mechanisms. The team comes a conclusion in the last week of build to determine which mechanism will be the competition version, and be shipped with the 'bot.

Our biggest problem is knowledge retention, since every year we lose mentors (college kids do eventually graduate and move on to real jobs) and HS seniors graduating.

[emekablue]

We have a significantly large (and growing!) team.

I do agree that it's definitely hard to maintain everybody and keep them busy, but we have a team application process in December in which everyone who is interested in joining or re-joining the team applies for a specific sub- field. Here's our 2011 team roster: http://www.brt1671.com/2011/brt1671/...ters/2011.html

Some sub-teams have a lot of work to do and consistently work on and off season (CAD, PR) and others function when needed (Strategy, Projects). When have people who aren't doing anything label themselves as FAT or Faithful, Available, Teachable and they help do any odd jobs around the shop.