team captain picking

[Bob Steele]

We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to be a sort of executive officer for the week...
...but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting...
...by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs...
...but by a two thirds majority in the case of...



I hope you see the humor....
points for those that know where this comes from....

[mwmac]

Originally Posted by Bob Steele

We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to be a sort of executive officer for the week...
...but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting...
...by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs...
...but by a two thirds majority in the case of...



I hope you see the humor....
points for those that know where this comes from....

Dennis, I mean Bob, I think you have found the grail.....

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Bob Steele

points for those that know where this comes from....

I'm bein' repressed! Come see the violence inherent in the system!

[Jade Z]

On our team, we have a student board that mirrors the positions on our adult board. Candidates for each of the positions are elected by anonymous popular vote by the veterans of the team before build season begins. Each candidate is allowed to give a short speech, but for the most part students vote based on what they know of the candidates from being on the team with them for at least one year.

It may seem like a popularity contest if the team candidate is selected by the students, but the important thing to remember is that a student with natural leadership ability will most likely be recognized as such by the other members of their team. Students will elect the leader they will choose to follow. If mentors make a selection the rest of the team does not agree with, the team is unlikely to follow that person.

I suppose it also depends on the responsibilities of the team captain on your specific team. When our candidates give their speeches, they address how they will and have been fitting the roles they would have to for their position.

Additionally, when one or two people make a decision, favoritism and bias can intentionally or unintentionally come into play. Not only that, but students are likely to act very differently around mentors than around their peers, and a student who at first appears perfect may be rude or disrespectful to their teammates. It is best if those who will have to follow the captain are allowed to choose who they are willing to follow.

[donnie99]

Our team has usually gone by a democratic vote for the captain for the current year, with some success and some problems over the last few years. Part of the problems were the lack of viable options and so the variance in how a team can be led was limited. Other problems were inexperienced captains being chosen because of lack of senior team members. I was chosen by our mentors at the end of build season my sophomore year, because or only two upperclassmen couldn't fulfill the time commitment.

What I'm trying to say is that all systems have their flaws, it would just be best to figure out what works best for your particular team.

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Bob Steele

We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. ...
points for those that know where this comes from....

Noam Chomsky is perhaps the best known American proponent of anarcho-syndicalism in the late 20th century. He is actually better known for his work in linguistics, developing transformational grammar (TG). His book on Syntactic Structures influenced two generations of linguistic scholars.

A passage from Chomsky explaining anarcho-syndicalism:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

(link)'Now a federated, decentralised system of free associations, incorporating economic as well as other social institutions, would be what I refer to as anarcho-syndicalism; and it seems to me that this is the appropriate form of social organisation for an advanced technological society in which human beings do not have to be forced into the position of tools, of cogs in the machine. There is no longer any social necessity for human beings to be treated as mechanical elements in the productive process; that can be overcome and we must overcome it to be a society of freedom and free association, in which the creative urge that I consider intrinsic to human nature will in fact be able to realize itself in whatever way it will.'*

* The Chomsky-Foucault Debate on Human Nature, The New Press, 2006, p.38-9