How to Get New Members to Stay?

[Jon Stratis]

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. This year we only retained one freshman. I try everything I can to keep them interested. I ask what they would like to do, I try to guide them and show them exactly how things need to be done, but they simply don't come back. Especially freshman, 90 perecent of freshman who join are super immature and kick the 2014 balls around and try to drill each others brains out no matter how much I and my mentors try to stop them, until eventualy we have to ask them to stop or leave. What do I do to get them to stop doing that.

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.

First off, why are the 2014 game pieces out and available? All game pieces from previous years should be stuck in a closet and locked up, unless being used for build/demo. If you give a kid a toy, he'll play with it.

Second, it sounds like you need a little more structure.

We have a parent meeting at the start of the fall that sets out expectations for students, especially time commitments. We set out requirements for lettering, which makes our expectations pretty clear. We tell them this is just like a sport, and should be treated as such with attendance and focus.

We have a structure to help them find what they want to do. Our summer camp is very structured, and gives everyone exposure to each part of the team - just like kids first learning t-ball, you have to play every spot of the field once to figure out what you like and what your good at. Our fall program generally assumes students know where they want to go, but we still allow some moving around - spend a few weeks in one subteam, and if you don't like it go spend a few weeks in another. We have specific projects designed around the number of students, with fixed deadlines - there's not really time to goof around, just like a soccer team doesn't spend hours goofing off.. When we find our team is more energetic, we toss in team building activities - things that take may be 15 minutes at the start of the meeting, but let them burn off some of that energy.