How do you approach Kick Off?

[ehfeinberg]

After being in first for two years, let just say that our team's kick off isn't the best that it could be. After attending championships and talking to teams there, I have heard some great ideas to change how our team approaches kick off.

So my question to you is, How do you approach kick off?
If you could please answer;

• How many students and mentors are on your team? Some techniques work best for a specific amount of students and mentors. What you do with 20 students might not work well for a team like mine with 40-50 students and 4-5 mentors.
• What do you do during the first two days of kickoff? How do you organize it?
• Coming out of kick off, how much time do you devote to prototyping. I know it changes year to year, but give an estimate.
• When is your final design "locked in"? I know it is the day after ship, but when do you have a clear picture of what your robot is going to look like.

And just some general information about your team;

• What are your hours of opperation durring build season? After talking to teams at Championships, there are teams which are able to meet 4 times a week while still building a competitive robot. We meet everyday and still struggle to finish the robot after 6 weeks.
• Do you build a practice bot? And if so do you build it in parallel, a little before, or after your competition bot?
• Lastly, if you could give one piece of advice, something that has worked well for you, or just a great piece of advice, would you give for a team to be successful.

Thanks so much for your response.