FRC Captains Round Table - Networking Facebook Group

[Ginger Bread]

Does safety captain count?

[gblake]

Like Groucho, I wouldn't want to join any club that would be willing to stoop low enough to invite me to join.

Speaking as a sneech on the beach who doesn't care whether or not the other sneeches do or do not have "stars upon thars"; and looking at the group's purpose through a lens of service-before-self, this whole thing sounds epically off-target.

Blake

PS: In one of my favorite movie scenes, in Ghostbusters, Ray is asked if he is a god. He answers incorrectly. Afterward, the other Ghostbusters tell him that the next time he is asked that same question, his answer should be an unambiguous "Yes!"

I would keep that in mind if I wanted to join the FRC Captains Round Table (which I don't).

[Rman1923]

So just my last two cents, I think this group is only for leaders of the Student Leads. Here is an example leadership bracket from my team (Please excuse the formatting):

Build Co-Capts(4) |Communications Co-Capt(1) |Business CoCapt(1)
Build Coordinator (3) |Awards Director (1) ---------- |Financial Lead
Strategy/Scouting (3)|Outreach Director (1) -------- |Sponsor relations
Safety (1)-------------|...-------------------------------|...
Electrical (2)
...

There are more positions where the ellipses are but I'm doing this from memory and we've changed our bracket over the years so some of the positions might be outdated, but the structure remains the same.

The FRC Captains Round Table Group is meant for (in this type of bracket) the bolded positions. So it really depends on the teams structure, but "Captains" are defined as Sub-team heads, or presidents, CEOs, etc.
Again, this isn't to exclude anyone, but to create a new kind of group, the point is to connect students and alumni from teams who have lead the leaders and have had much responsibility on their teams. The reason this group seems to be "exclusive" is because there are so many FRC groups with thousands of people posting on them every day, and those kinds of groups are both hard to keep up with and uninteresting to follow because of the sheer number of notifications and different topics. In this group, the conversation is pointed towards what leaders can do to make a difference on our teams, how to handle mentor and administrative difficulties, and things to improve team standings.
In the end this group is for people who have achieved the "captain" status on thier teams. There are other exclusive groups for people who are girls on FRC teams, Dean's List Finalists/Winners, FIRST Volunteers, etc. This is just another one of those groups.
Another point of this group (I think) was to create a student-saturated version of Chief Delphi. A lot of times some of us feel intimidated that there are always more alumni and mentors answering our threads when we want student opinions. It's not something that's happened to me personally, but I often see anonymous accounts created by students to ask questions they might get unhelpful hate for by a certain group of people. (Like let's be honest there are distinct factions on CD, and it sucks when one of them hate on you). Most of the group are students and I think the only alumni are 2015 seniors.
If the name is hurting other people's feelings or insulting to someone, I'm sure if someone suggests a name that's more inclusive for the exclusive group, there will be compromise. Let's not get worked up about the name of a new FIRST group, or it's function. There are so many "exclusive" groups that we could argue for ages if we discussed each one.
I really don't want to reply to this thread anymore cause if the conversation goes past this, then it'll be more ridiculous than this thread.

[Kevin Leonard]

Originally Posted by Rman1923

(Like let's be honest there are distinct factions on CD, and it sucks when one of them hate on you).

On Chief Delphi? This all-inclusive, happy community of innocent robot-builders?
Nah definitely not.

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by Rman1923

If the name is hurting other people's feelings or insulting to someone, I'm sure if someone suggests a name that's more inclusive for the exclusive group, there will be compromise. Let's not get worked up about the name of a new FIRST group, or it's function.

I don't think the discussion was over the name hurting feelings but rather making sure it was clear and offering suggestions for an improved membership criteria.

With the group as it stands questions like 'how is CADMan sure that people he doesn't want haven't already applied for an been accepted to the group?', 'at what point does a captain transition to "alumni" or "mentor" and have to leave the group?', still need to be answered.

[Rman1923]

Originally Posted by Monochron

With the group as it stands questions like 'how is CADMan sure that people he doesn't want haven't already applied for an been accepted to the group?', 'at what point does a captain transition to "alumni" or "mentor" and have to leave the group?', still need to be answered.

I'm not sure about the first question, but as of now the population seems to be people who send a request to join the group and the request gets granted. Actually, now that I think about it, i think I sent a message saying I was a captain, but I don't think that was necessary. I honestly don't think it's strictly regulated so it really depends on the people requesting and whether they are telling the truth or not. The rest would be up to theCADman since I think he's the only admin right now.

In the group's description on facebook, it says that the group was created to network all the captains of team so that they can do stuff, ask advice, etc. Also in the description is that they want to keep the group connected because these connections may help 10 years from now when we're in the professional environment. It's a nice thought and group, so that's why I joined it. So I have no idea if there are plans to kick off future alumni or mentors, but I think there are a few there already, and they've been pretty helpful in some of the discussions we've had.

Those are my best answers as a member of the group, not as an admin though.