Selecting New Team Members

[RayTurner1126]

1126 does use an application process, although people are rarely ever cut. we have trouble finding an abundance of members usually. Last year we were fairly large for us, which was about 34 students, but i expect we will grow this year. the applications aren't very vigorous, mostly your typical grades, etc. and contact info, what subteam you're interested in. there is also an interview for new students where they ask you some questions about FIRST to see what you know aready and such, and why you wanted to join, leadership experience, etc. if cuts do have to happen, the priority grade level picking goes: sophomore, freshman, junior, senior

as for who goes to competitions, you have to have a certain number of hours during the build season (i think 150ish, but i forgot the exact number) to go to the travel ones. to go to FLR which is very close, you just have to be academically eligible according to the school standards (basically, you can't be failing classes) and that's about it.

as for drives team, they pick who is best at the given positions, but you have to have above a 75 in each class to be considered because they want to make sure you'll definitely be academically eligible for competitions.

i personally wish our team would be more selective. i think other people probably have had experiences that would incline them to say the same too. it's just a bit frustrating when some of the kids don't have the dedication they should to be on the team.

[demosthenes2k8]

Originally Posted by klmx30302

Our team is open to anyone, but there are requirements that must be met to be considered "on" the team.

We have a meeting in early September that anyone who is interested can come to, then we explain the requirements to be on the team to the incoming students.

You have to attend at least 1/2 of all fall trainings, you have to be present for at least 6 hours a week during build season, and you need to be present at 2/3 of our Friday meetings after school. You also have to write a 250 word essay explaining why you want to be on the team and what you want to accomplish during the year. Also if a student is failing classes they can not participate / travel. This usually gets rid of anyone that doesn't want to be on the team that badly.

And new for this year, students who want to go to the competition we travel for (eg. Las Vegas last year) have to submit a travel application, and if the captains don't feel you helped enough during build season, or you weren't really "dedicated" to the team, you can't travel.
The travel application is still a work in progress as of now though.

We never really had a issue with too many students on the team, our team size has hovered around 50-60 for 3 years now.

Just a followup to this - the fall training, Friday meeting, and essay requirements were all created or updated last year, but I'm fairly sure that even people who were "on the team" last year still have to go through all of it again - all the veterans had to do them last year as well.

And yeah, it's been 50-60 for as long as I can remember.

[akoscielski3]

Originally Posted by demosthenes2k8

Just a followup to this - the fall training, Friday meeting, and essay requirements were all created or updated last year, but I'm fairly sure that even people who were "on the team" last year still have to go through all of it again - all the veterans had to do them last year as well.

And yeah, it's been 50-60 for as long as I can remember.

Same with our team, with the veterans having to complete everything again. I dont know why exactly, or if there is any benefit to it. My brother didnt make the team in his gr 10 year, but he came to ever meeting and was the leader in gr 11 and team captain in gr 12.

How do you find work for all the people when you have 50-60 students? We have a hard time finding work for about 25-30. Are there a fair amount of people who dont come as often, and then a smaller group that are extremely dedicated?

[Taylor]

Will your being a member of the Robotics Team inspire others?
Congratulations, you're on the team.
Will you be inspired by being a member of the Robotics Team?
Congratulations, you're on the team.

[klmx30302]

Originally Posted by akoscielski3

Same with our team, with the veterans having to complete everything again. I dont know why exactly, or if there is any benefit to it. My brother didnt make the team in his gr 10 year, but he came to ever meeting and was the leader in gr 11 and team captain in gr 12.

How do you find work for all the people when you have 50-60 students? We have a hard time finding work for about 25-30. Are there a fair amount of people who dont come as often, and then a smaller group that are extremely dedicated?

Exactly right, we have ALOT of people, but out of those people, we have a smaller dedicated group of students. For instance, on average only 5-15 people have shown up to our summer trainings this summer. And during build season I can not remember a day during the school week where more then 30-40 students have shown up. But on weekends during build season especially on Saturday, almost everyone attends.

And as for the extremely dedicated group, we have one of those, but we lost a good portion of that group this year do to graduations. But that group is generally the group that puts in 30 hours a week during build season and rarely misses a meeting.

[Dustin Shadbolt]

Sure wish we had enough kids to do an application process lol. We are lucky to have 7-8 kids. The year we won BMR we had about 20. Now we just have 4 signed up, but some recruits might be coming in. As long as they want to be there and want to learn, they have a spot.

[rifkinni]

Our team is open to anybody to join. However, to be part of the team, you have to accumulate 10 hours of service in the off-season and attend 3/4 of our training sessions.
To travel, you have to come during build season at least 3 times a week. In addition, we are implementing performance reviews to let us know if a student really did contribute, or if they showed up just to sign their name on the attendance list.

[thefro526]

On 816, we've never had an application process.

We've found that more often than not, kids will cut themselves from the team before we even need to think about it. Usually, by the time build season and competition season come around, the team has sort of sorted itself into core members, twice a week members, and 'Hey, I went to two meetings over the course of 5 months, can I still go to regionals'. The last case is usually the only time we deny a member.

[Robert103]

On 103, there is an application process, and after the applications, a series of interviews. We try to keep between 30 and 35 members each year. Anything larger we have found to be hard to manage. For us, the number of applicants changes a lot from year to year, so we're forced to be a lot harder on the applicants when there are more of them. Once on the team, it's a 100% commitment, all team members are required to attend all team meetings, workshops, fundraisers, and the rest. Leadership positions are elected, President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary. We've found this works well because everyone on the team is dedicated and really wants to be there.

[akoscielski3]

Thanks for all your input. Im going to bring this up at the next leaders meeting.

[LondonBoy29]

Anybody can join our team, since we don't get a lot of interest. But only a certain amount of people can go to each regional, since we live in London, and it costs a lot to fly people over. We decided this by how often the person comes to robotics, how much they've done, and how senior they are (that includes school grades and years on the team).