How to Get New Members to Stay?

[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!