How to Get New Members to Stay?

[Katie_UPS]

Originally Posted by dirtbikerxz

So give me advice on this guys. We always get over 20 new students (freshman) who signup on the "i have interest" sheet. But as soon as they find out that there is no way that there is a huge chance that they wont get to step on the field until they are atleast juniors, and even then they have to be better than others to get that position, 18 our of 20 people leave.

Maybe compete in other competitions as well so that everyone can build and drive a robot, ie FTC or VEX.

Also out of the existing team (11 students) only 4 students actively take part during build season. SO that leads to us 4 having to do more than one task (like cading and programming and building for me). Since build season happens during baseball, soccer, and track season, the other 7 simply can't imagine skipping a day or two of practice a week to do robotics (even though I try to explain that I can find time from playing soccer, and two of the other three also do sports).
Anyone have any advice to rectify both of these problems? Thanks in advance guys.

Its a robotics team, no different from a sports team. If you miss practice you sit on the bench. No one signs up for Volleyball and Cross-country at the same time (assuming they're in the same season), so the same should be with robotics (assume robotics is a winter sport with a winter season).