New Members

[EricH]

Originally Posted by zizia

Hi, I'm not a mentor, I'm just a team member but my team (2996) have had a similar problem in that we had too many new and inexperienced members and not enough for them to. We created an FTC team that served as a JV team to our Varsity. If students needed to learn new skills or couldn't make the time commitment they were recommended to join the FTC team instead of the FRC. This way we still managed to keep our students busy, and maintain a steady new member flow to both teams. I don't know if this is feasible for you guys, because you said that you had a tiny shop, but maybe you could organize different time schedules?

As a note, the OP is in Israel. FIRST at this time has no FTC teams or events listed in Israel. VRC also has nothing listed in that country.

For the OP:
I see a couple of methods. One, as already noted, is to increase the number of mentors (and/or the size of the build space, which may require a completely new build space).

Another method I can see working is to raise the lower age limit by one grade. Something like this (using the American grade system here): If your team is currently grades 9-12, make it grades 10-12. If you think you can have a few more after that cut, add in grade 9 on a "intern" basis--that is, they have more restrictions on when they can be there (parents with them?), or maybe they have to have FLL experience to join. That way, you only have to screen one grade instead of all of them.

And another method... Offseason Training. If you can get more students trained on the equipment, you can limit the number of students in the shop on any given night and still have a fully-functional crew there. This allows more rest/homework, and possibly whoever isn't in the shop meets up elsewhere, finding more space for the team to use.

[Taylor]

As the only full-time adult working with my team, and 50 students on our current year's roster, I can say there's no such thing as too little space or not enough adult help.
Be creative in how you use the veteran members of your team. One of the team mottos is "your second season as a CyberCard is your first season as a Mentor" - allow experienced students to take on leadership roles, design activities, generate ideas.
As Alan said, parents are a valuable resource - don't overlook them.
An ongoing conversation I've had with several of my FriendsWithRobots revolves around the idea that some people need the team more than the team needs these people. These fine folks will fall through if membership consideration is based on interviews, applications, or grade requirements.

[kstl99]

This thread concerns me greatly. I am amazed at what FIRST can do for students. I have seen lives changed and heard so many more stories. FIRST can be a place where all the skills needed for later life are learned and developed. Using some of the standards I have seen in this thread would have eliminated many I saw in my first year as a mentor that later became core members of the team. I have felt that every school should have a team and every student should have the opportunity to be on a team. I realize this may be impossible if you would really have 150 students but limiting by size should be a last resort. Splitting into subgroups, JVs and Varsity, FTC, anything to get them involved. I just hate to see a student who wants to join not be able to.

[E Dawg]

I would suggest having some of the veteran team members act in a quasi-mentor role some of the time. Of course, they will probably want to work on the robot from time to time (or have to), but on our team this pretty much clears up any problems that may stem from a lack of mentors.

As for the question of students, it really depends on when your team meets. If you meet as a class (during school hours) you will have to restrict the number of people on your team via requirements such as grades, previous technology classes, behavioral records (if that kind of thing concerns you, and other various background information that matters to you. You could also draw out of a hat, but that may seem unfair to some students. If you meet outside of school, there are always ways to accommodate more people. You could do this by breaking people up into ever smaller groups, but I find that this can restrict communications within the team. I would recommend splitting the team up into groups with each meeting on a different day. For example, group A would meet on Monday and Wednesday. Group B would meet Tuesday and Thursday. Everyone would get Friday off. In the end, though, you should stick with what YOU are comfortable with as not everyone's system works for others. The important thing is that you are still furthering the goals of FIRST while still meeting the needs of yourself and others.