Taking the plunge. . .

[valeriemoore]

My team's last/this season was arguably the best that we've ever had. The year has been both reasonably organized and lots of fun. The plan is to become even more organized this school year. There is no flip of the switch: Oh here look now we're different. It SHOULD be a process, in my mind at least. This school year has been the most organized robotics has ever been. At the same time it has remains loads of fun.

The switch from Rag tag to Organized should not signal the end of fun. If it does in my opinion you're doing it wrong. The switch from rag tag to organized comes with the development of the team, as the team becomes bigger and more established the team will need to become more organized.

At different regionals I have seen teams and team members who have given up the concept of "Fun" in order to create as you say, lean mean award winning machines. I find these teams sad. It's FIRST, people seem to sometimes turn it into FRST and leave out the Inspiration. Part of the point to the program is to create an atmosphere were team members can go "Wow that's cool, I want to try that".

It sounds like your team is on the brink of become a well organized team: I plead of you to remember that having fun is a good reason itself when doing robotics.

TL;DR Don't forget about fun when your team becomes organized.