Shelf Life Of A Team

[Marygrace]

Originally Posted by Ryan Foley

The only thing a team needs to survive is people who want it to survive.

I completely agree, yr 2002 our team had a lot of problems. First of all, noone got along, there were "clicks". (I wasn't part of the team at that time, my sister was) Second, half the team would work at our autoshop at our school and the other half at the machining shop that was supporting our team. The autoshop thought one thing was going on and the machine shop, another. One big mess, not only that but the mentors didn't get a long and the school support was slowly fading. It took a lot of coaxing to get their support again.

But, after that year was over, three mentors relized that an intervention was needed...or reinvention. We created the steering commitee, which i would attend meetings a long w/ my sis, last years captain, and this yrs co-capt besides me. I think an important thing we did was we started with spirit. We painted everything orange in the auto shop.

(Yeah, i thought it would be fun, painting, but it takes forever to get acrylic paint off! At the time it was annoying! But, now when you walk in, you know who it belongs to.....Even though the Construction teacher is trying to get us kicked out, sorry, we have marked our territory. LOL)

N-e wayz. After everyone started to come regularly to meetings and we started to steadily get sponsors, the steering commitee meetings began to fade.

It took about three months of 3x a week meetings but it was worth it. The team was back on its feet, even jumping in the air. Not only were we able to get the funds for registration and Phoenix, and food, and everything else, we also did countless numbers of exhibitions, making many friends in the community. (Another shout out, this one to Whole foods, the best sandwiches ever!) The season also ran smoother because of this, we got donations of 1/4" thick steel for our welding booth, loads of alluminum, and lots of wood so we were able to build a full field. The field was another cause and affect. We invited teams to test their robots at our field. Ex. Team 696. Wow, their robot is oned of kind, it is especially scary when they are trying to get the autonomous perfected and im in the way. Yeah, i ran, yeah i screamed.

N-e wayz, my point is, with out those three engineers that wanted team "Beach Cities Robotics," to march on, I wouldn't be here writing right now. The team wouldn't exist, we wouldn't have met the amazing people in FIRST that dedicate their life to making this work. Most important of all, a team of students wouldn't have been inspired, maybe not about engineering, but about life in general.

.......And I wouldn't have found my second family. Without FIRST, I can't imagine how my life would be.

[MichalSkiba]

This is our team's 3rd year in FIRST, and 5th in a robotics competition.

As a exec member hows been there from the day the team/club was created, I would definatley agree that nothing happens without people, and particularily team members. Dispite our increasing strength (in our rookie year, 2 years ago, we were 35th at the Canadian Regional, and last year we attended Houston) we are loosing people. Our school has an exceptional reputation for academic and athletic achievement, not techinical. Most of the school's focus is on social sciences, pure sciences and music. Many students apply to our school for that reason, not robotics. As a result, our manufacturing classes have shrunk. Two years ago we had 3 different courses. This year we only have a single grade 10/11/12 split of about 30 students. All of the senior members of that class are exec members. I guess the course is still staying alive because of robotics [which our teacher had incorperated into the course].

We have about 30 registered members, of whom 15 are active. Several years ago we had as many as 30 active members. Part of the problem is that the club is seen as something between friends (all of the exec member are close friends as a result of our dedication to robotics), and not something open to them. The other part of the problem is that many potential members are turned away by the complex machinery [lathe, CNC mill, welder,...] or the amount of time that is required of them to dedicate. Most of our new members drift to non technical elements such as programming, web page or animation.

We have little sponsorship and only a handful of mentors and one staff advisor. The team is completely student run; which in a sense is a problem because our staff advisor won't be able ressrect the team after a dorment season. This year most of the exec member are graduating and the team next year will most likely be even smaller.

Hopefully, with another successful season we'll be able to lure a few more students.

WE NEED A TEAM HOTTIE!!!!!!