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[ttldomination]

My team actually hit this wall for the first time this year, and I think we handled it pretty well. Let me detail this out for you.

General Interest Meeting: Students came into a theater or whatever, and we did our basic presentation about the team and why they would like to join. At the end of the presentation, we told the student to fill out an application and to show up at a "tryout" day.

Tryout Day: We gave the students some basic tasks and/or challenges. We were not looking for technical skills or even how well they completed the challenge. But rather, we were looking for people who worked well in groups, showed good logic in their thought process, and ultimately looked like they would be a good fit in our environment.

After the tryout day, student leaders and the head mentor met up to select the applicants. They chose the students based off what they saw at tryouts and applications.

Note about the application, we asked general, census information (name, age, contact information), but we also asked students to write about the time they worked on a team, why they wanted to be on our program, and some stressful situations they have had to deal with. The application didn't put an emphasis on technical skill or prior robotics experience, but students who were involved with FLL and such could brag about that.

During the process, we were honest with the students about our expectations and our process. We emphasized that we were only taking 16-20 students, prior robotics involvement was not a prerequisite, and that we were looking for folks who would mesh well with our team.

In our mind, we didn't set a very high bar for applicants, but asking them to jump over a bar let us see how high some folks could really go. As such, it was a good process, it was remarkably fair, the students and parents accepted it, and we will probably do something very similar in the future.

- Sunny G.

[sanddrag]

We have an online application with a handful of short response questions and we conduct a 5 minute interview of each applicant. Additionally, we give all teachers in the school a list of our applicants and ask them to check yes or no for recommendation and write a short comment. It's a difficult process, and it's not without it's faults.

There used to be a time where we could accept everyone who applied. Increasing demand has eliminated that possibility.

Right now, we have 18 returning students and 14 new, and we'll be accepting 2 more 9th grade students. Having 32 is not a bad thing so long as you have the mentor and leadership support. Even with 32, we sometimes struggle to get 8 in the offseason.

We're trying to get more students who are very serious about their involvement and will not be of the "sampler plate" variety and will really choose an area to get proficient in.

[safiq10]

I cna't say for how the FRC team picks and chooses. But on the BEST robotics we need a lot of people so we generally pick everyone up. But we still have a tryout day. But we recently ran into a problem a younger student whoose older brother made it onto the team wants to join. But from a past history we know that the younger student has a lot of emotional breakdowns if he cant gets what he wants and he dosent take directions very well. So we are trying to figure to tell him that he cant be on the team unless he changes these things. I don't know are we wrong for trying to kick him off? Should we keep him on? I dont want to kick him off but with ony 6 weeks I cant have him blowing up. Any suggestions

[ttldomination]

Originally Posted by safiq10

I cna't say for how the FRC team picks and chooses. But on the BEST robotics we need a lot of people so we generally pick everyone up. But we still have a tryout day. But we recently ran into a problem a younger student whoose older brother made it onto the team wants to join. But from a past history we know that the younger student has a lot of emotional breakdowns if he cant gets what he wants and he dosent take directions very well. So we are trying to figure to tell him that he cant be on the team unless he changes these things. I don't know are we wrong for trying to kick him off? Should we keep him on? I dont want to kick him off but with ony 6 weeks I cant have him blowing up. Any suggestions

This is one of those things that you need to handle delicately.

First off, I have to ask how you know about this particular student's issues. Hearsay has a nasty way of bending the truth. If you want to take action against this student based on his/her past, make sure your information is concrete.

Secondly, I would recommend taking the student on board, if it's merited, but do not single him out on any accord. Let this student come into his own and let him show your team what he can do.

Thirdly, if things don't work out, or if the student in question gets unruly, dismiss him from the team. It's easier said than done, but robotics teams can be chaotic at the best of times. If a student is purposely and persistently rocking the boat, have no reservations in dismissing him/her from the team.

- Sunny G.

[nicholsjj]

Originally Posted by safiq10

I cna't say for how the FRC team picks and chooses. But on the BEST robotics we need a lot of people so we generally pick everyone up. But we still have a tryout day. But we recently ran into a problem a younger student whoose older brother made it onto the team wants to join. But from a past history we know that the younger student has a lot of emotional breakdowns if he cant gets what he wants and he dosent take directions very well. So we are trying to figure to tell him that he cant be on the team unless he changes these things. I don't know are we wrong for trying to kick him off? Should we keep him on? I dont want to kick him off but with ony 6 weeks I cant have him blowing up. Any suggestions

Safiq: I would sit the student down with his brother and explain to him that in such a short build time breakdowns hurt everyone on the team. I would then partner him up with a team leader on a smaller task such as the t-shirt design or booth design. If he continues his disruptive behavior then it is more than appropriate to ask him to leave.(We had to do this once to a student because he was starting to become dangerous.)

Yarden: I would start out the first introduction/presentation meeting praising the students on working to the point of having a full team. I would then implement a extremely strict attendance policy and tell the students that unless you follow it(excluding becoming sick/death in the family) then the mentors of the team have the right to remove you from the team. You can do the same thing with a behavioral policy and after a few months, even if you had more students than you thought you could deal with, you should have a solid team that is there not just for a resume bump but for being a great frc team member.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Yarden,
We are a class within the school district (7 schools but students come primarily from three schools and home schooled students) and all students must apply through their counselor. We accept 60 students each year. They know that many of them will not work on the robot but we have other work that needs to be done like building a field, animation, video and strategy and data collecting.