Administration and Structure - What do you wish your team was built on?

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Seth Mallory

Standing back as far as we do is a lot harder then stepping in.

Re-quoted for truth.

Our structure shifts a little each year as we cater to strengths or try new things, but essentially we have major groups and sub-teams within them, along thelines of mechanical (drivetrain, chassis, maipulator(s)), electrical, pneumatic, programming, test & Integration, and of course a few non-tech.

[abhem]

Our team has a sort of "executive" system. We have two coaches, and we have 6 student Executives per semester (so 12 in total). There is the President (who oversees the team and is "in charge" of the executives), an Events executive (who handles competitions, fundraising events, food at comps, transportation, and in school events), a Public Relations "PR" executive, (who handles recruitment, team newsletter, team apparel), Treasurer, who handles all team money(looking for sponsors, tracking payments and reimbursements, and all team finances), Outreach executive, (who handles our relationship to our community such as going to elementary schools and having "open house" to improve STEM recognition), and a Shop executive (who handles taking inventory of tools, replacing them, keeping the Shop a safe workplace, and is Safety Captain at events).
All of the executives switch off each semester. We have weekly executive meetings to touch base with all the executives and find out information about upcoming deadlines.Also, at least 1 if not both of the coaches are present at the meetings to assure they stay on track. "Apprentices"(can be anyone on the team) choose an executive to work under for a year and are then allowed to run for a non-presidential position on the Executive board. To be president you must have been an executive or apprenticed an executive for 2 years.


This system has worked extremely well for our team in the past and improves student/coach/executive relationships throughout the year and during the stressful build season and competition season.