Team Size

[natejo99]

Our team is about the same size (20 members or so). Now, in some ways, I consider this to be a good size. If there are fewer people around, there's a greater chance that none of them will be sitting around doing nothing and distracting those who are working, because they will all be preoccupied with an important job. However, this has proven to not be the case. Most of the time, students don't show up, or do, and don't do the work anyway, which puts a lot of strain on the other half of our student body that commits a lot of their time to our team. So 40 members would be great for our team, as hopefully it would increase the amount of dedicated members. It all depends on the dedication and work ethic of the students.

I agree with your wholeheartedly on the interview issue. The only time I would find it appropriate to have "tryouts" of sorts for a FIRST program is if there are an overwhelming amount of students applying to be on your team, and even then, I would consider either starting a new FIRST team for the students that didn't make the cut (which I know can be expensive) or referring them to another smallet area team.

Hope this helps!