What's the gender demographic of your team leadership?

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Taylor

We would love to find out similar data for other FRC teams. I'm not sure if HQ tracks mentor demographics or not; does anybody know who to contact for data?

We don't have student leadership on our team, really, so I don't have anything to contribute to that conversation.

With respect to our mentors, however, there are 7 women and 11 men. Two of the women are technical mentors. All 11 of the men are technical mentors. Our lead advisor is a woman.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by Madison

We don't have student leadership on our team, really, so I don't have anything to contribute to that conversation.

With respect to our mentors, however, there are 7 women and 11 men. Two of the women are technical mentors. All 11 of the men are technical mentors. Our lead advisor is a woman.

You don't have student leadership? That seems like a really big lost opportunity to teach new leaders.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

You don't have student leadership? That seems like a really big lost opportunity to teach new leaders.

Student leaders naturally emerge. We recognize that and will often give those students additional responsibilities and privileges, but the process for doing that isn't formalized.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by Madison

Student leaders naturally emerge. We recognize that and will often give those students additional responsibilities and privileges, but the process for doing that isn't formalized.

Why not? A student leadership title is very helpful come college applications.

[Hallry]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Why not? A student leadership title is very helpful come college applications.

What's more important than students developing leadership skills for their college applications is simply the fact that they are developing leadership skills.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by Hallry

What's more important than students developing leadership skills for their college applications is simply the fact that they are developing leadership skills.

Well of course. I was more addressing the fact that they were leading without it being formalized.

[Knufire]

469 went a similar route. Instead of having formal leaders, those that lead naturally emerged and were respected all the same by their peers. Teamwork was one of the most important principles taught to the students; the team operated on the basis that everyone, mentor or student, was an equal member.

In terms of college applications, most of these student leaders (for the four years I was on the team) went to Michgan, MIT, or Rose to pursue an engineering degree, so I'd say the lack of formalized titles wasn't a detriment.

IMO, this process also avoided a lot of internal drama that afflicts other teams when leaders are chosen/elected for specific positions. It also reduces the amount of scramble when an elected/appointed leader doesn't furfull their duties; without formal leaders the responsibility natrually progresses to someone else.

To contribute to the original intent of the thread, 469 was roughly even on the gender split of student leaders when I was on the team. 5188 has always had a female team captain and non-engineering lead, and male mechanical and programming leads.

[abigailthefox]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Well of course. I was more addressing the fact that they were leading without it being formalized.

Formalizing leadership also helps resolve disputes. If a student is qualified and well-suited to lead, and is offered such a positions and accepts, they deserve respect as a leader. FRC is full of teenagers, who might not be the most complacent to a student leader in the same way they would be an adult (not every teen is this way, and some teams don't really have this problem, but it does happen). Offering a formal position can come with an outline of "here are your responsibilities, and here are your privileges". For example, maybe a CAD leader can delegate CAD duties to people on a CAD team. While all team members have input, the delegation and final approval of parts might be the responsibility of the CAD lead. If the CAD lead is given an actual title and formal position, as well as some authority to make the decisions in their jurisdiction, things often flow quite smoother, and the design process can be streamlined.


This year, the person leading our CAD was not really given any way to enforce their responsibilities. Thus, people who disagreed with the CAD lead didn't bring their ideas or designs to her to discuss before finishing them and adding them to the final assembly. Soon enough, a few weeks had passed, and there was no time to go back. Despite the frequent queries from the CAD lead to inspect and discuss design ideas FIRST, the design ended up being cobbled together. Consequently, the mechanical parts constructed from those designs didn't work very well together.

TL;DR: Actual leadership titles and responsibilities that are actively backed up by mentor support can really matter when disagreements arise

[NickKerstens]

There's already been a significant amount of great conversation and well written points made in this thread, but I thought it would still be worth putting my and my team's two cents in.

One major change that our team faced this year was how most of our veteran members either graduated or left the team, leaving us with an abundance of rookie members that knew little to nothing about FRC, FIRST or even STEM for that matter.

Because of this, along with other factors influenced by the amount of team drama built up over the past few years, 4343 opted against creating leadership roles for each department of the team (finance, electrical, etc.) and instead only having two student-lead positions: Director and Assistant Director. The Assistant Director role is filled by two students rather than one, lightening the load on the Director and the Assistant Director.

These positions are filled through a written application including a resume, cover letter, and three references, with an unbiased third-party interview with applicants conducted later. Our director for the First Stronghold season is Male, and both of the co-assistant directors are Female. On 4343 we don't consider gender when the selecting the candidate, and we have had Females holding the top position in the past.

It's also worth noting that it's more common of the female members on our team to demonstrate and utilize leadership qualities, regardless of their experience or knowledge. When they want to get things done, they get things done!

[Pauline Tasci]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Why not? A student leadership title is very helpful come college applications.

A student leader should not be chosen because it looks good on college apps, that's not what leadership is about.

Leadership is when anyone steps up to the plate and takes initiative for the improvement of their own team not for a line on their college apps.