How to Get New Members to Stay?

[gblake]

Originally Posted by Cinnastar047

...
We think we have an idea of what's causing the cycle of no members and tons of members, but we'd like to know what other team do that successfully get their new members to stay.
...

If you think you have gotten enough answers about the general topic of retaining new members, I'm curious why you think your group is going through an every-two-years boom/bust cycle.

Can that be shared, or does it need to stay private?

Blake

[Cinnastar047]

Originally Posted by gblake

If you think you have gotten enough answers about the general topic of retaining new members, I'm curious why you think your group is going through an every-two-years boom/bust cycle.

Can that be shared, or does it need to stay private?

Blake

Ah, that's a fun one. Our team currently consists of about 15 seniors, 2 juniors, 15 sophomores, and 2 freshmen. Last year we had about 10 members graduate (most of whom joined after their freshman year) and the year before that, there were no members of the graduating class on our team. The current junior class is a rather sensitive story to a lot of our team, but this year a lot of our freshmen just seemed uninterested or committed to other sports.

It's not exactly a cycle, but it really feels like it to a lot of our team.

[dirtbikerxz]

Our situation is a the same, but its every 4 years instead of two. The senior class that graduated last year were the main players in the team throughout their 4 seasons, then the freshman class of last year (we are sophmores this year) are the main players right now, and will be for the next 2 years most likely. I just have no way of explaining this :|

[Chief Hedgehog]

Originally Posted by gblake

If you think you have gotten enough answers about the general topic of retaining new members, I'm curious why you think your group is going through an every-two-years boom/bust cycle.

Can that be shared, or does it need to stay private?

Blake

Agreed. It would be easier to offer assistance if we knew some of the reasons for this boom and bust cycle.

4607 has been graduating 10-13 members each year for our short four year existence - and every year we bring in a load of 10th and 11th grade students that have an immediate impact. Next year we will be returning 16 seniors - and all but two have at least 2 years on the team. However, we noticed that the 9th grade students were not ready to take on the tasks and the time constraints required by our FRC season - and a lot of this is due to their maturity and lack of a drivers license.

My suggestion is to create a FTC team that is designated for freshman. We did this in 2015/16 and most of these students are wanting to return to their FTC team in the fall and then transition into our FRC team after their season ends. This has created a need for a new FTC team in our HS to bring in the new 9th grade class. The sophomores on the FTC team will not have to pay a new registration fee for FRC 4607 as the two fees are the same - so that has helped to encourage them to stay on FTC and then transition more slowly into the FRC season.

[dirtbikerxz]

[quote=Chief Hedgehog;1589973
4607 has been graduating 10-13 members each year for our short four year existence - and every year we bring in a load of 10th and 11th grade students that have an immediate impact. Next year we will be returning 16 seniors - and all but two have at least 2 years on the team. However, we noticed that the 9th grade students were not ready to take on the tasks and the time constraints required by our FRC season - and a lot of this is due to their maturity and lack of a drivers license.

[/QUOTE]

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that freshmen are getting less and less mature each year? I'm a sophmore right now, the freshman class last year (the one i was in) was mature and dedicated to the work. The freshman before us were even more mature. But this years freshman are a bunch of goofballs who like to pretend to drill each others brains out and take nothing seriously, and I've been told that next year is even worse .

[Cinnastar047]

Originally Posted by dirtbikerxz

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that freshmen are getting less and less mature each year? I'm a sophmore right now, the freshman class last year (the one i was in) was mature and dedicated to the work. The freshman before us were even more mature. But this years freshman are a bunch of goofballs who like to pretend to drill each others brains out and take nothing seriously, and I've been told that next year is even worse .

I'm a sophomore as well, and a lot of our class was really involved in just extracurriculars in general while this year's freshmen really haven't been. The freshmen we did attract were all fairly mature at least compared to some of their classmate, and even some of my classmates. On the other hand, I've also been told that our incoming freshmen next year are quite a bit worse. I think a lot of it is just how we perceive things to be.

[gblake]

Originally Posted by dirtbikerxz

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that freshmen are getting less and less mature each year? I'm a sophmore right now, the freshman class last year (the one i was in) was mature and dedicated to the work. The freshman before us were even more mature. But this years freshman are a bunch of goofballs who like to pretend to drill each others brains out and take nothing seriously, and I've been told that next year is even worse .

In Book III of Odes, circa 20 BC, Horace wrote:

Originally Posted by Horace

Our sires' age was worse than our grandsires'.
We, their sons, are more worthless than they;
so in our turn we shall give the world a progeny yet more corrupt.

I took that Horace quotation from the page at this URL Get off my lawn, pull up your pants, turn down that racket, take out that piercing, get a haircut, cover up that tattoo, put on some decent clothes, stop staring at your phone, and get a real job.

There are 14 additional quotes there. One rails against silk umbrellas; another against playing too much chess. Apparently there was very little entropy in human society long ago, because things have been steadily going downhill for over 2000 years, and we haven't hit bottom yet.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by dirtbikerxz

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that freshmen are getting less and less mature each year? I'm a sophmore right now, the freshman class last year (the one i was in) was mature and dedicated to the work. The freshman before us were even more mature. But this years freshman are a bunch of goofballs who like to pretend to drill each others brains out and take nothing seriously, and I've been told that next year is even worse .

There may or may not be a long term trend here, but it's much less than the variation among classes. Each class seems to have it's own levels of maturity, ambition, and commitment. There's plenty of variation within each class, of course. There's no real pattern I've recognized, but it does go back and forth fairly quickly - possibly related to the phase of El Niño / La Niña / Southern Oscillation when they were born.

[Chief Hedgehog]

Originally Posted by dirtbikerxz

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that freshmen are getting less and less mature each year? I'm a sophmore right now, the freshman class last year (the one i was in) was mature and dedicated to the work. The freshman before us were even more mature. But this years freshman are a bunch of goofballs who like to pretend to drill each others brains out and take nothing seriously, and I've been told that next year is even worse .

There is an ebb and flow for all things - and gauging maturation on a yearly basis is not a great way to measure things. In other words, every year the Middle School Staff tells me that this is the worst group of 8th grade students. Sometimes they are correct, but more often than not they are wrong.

I will let you know if this is the worst group of freshman 3 years from now...

[Jon Stratis]

From my experience, the perceived maturity of any group of people can be greatly affected by a small group of individuals. You'll have classes come through that have one or two "troublemakers", and those individuals will get everyone riled up and make a bad impression. Then you'll get classes without those individuals, and others will make a strong good impression. Then, when you're talking about taking just a portion of those students for a robotics team, it can be hit or miss - you may get the "good" students one year, and the "troublemakers" the next.

Regardless of who you get on your team, or how they/their class is perceived, our job doesn't change. Both the mentors and the older students need to serve as role models, set expectations, and mentor the new students!

[dirtbikerxz]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

Regardless of who you get on your team, or how they/their class is perceived, our job doesn't change. Both the mentors and the older students need to serve as role models, set expectations, and mentor the new students!

100 percent!