Shelf Life Of A Team

[RoboCoder]

Reading all of these posts makes me realize how lucky our team has been. We are only a second year team, but we have over 70 members in the robotics "club". Being at a school with a Math, Science, and Technology magnet program, student interest has always been good, and faculty/administration support has gone along with it. Our principal has always been more than generous in offering support. Also, only half an hour away is Georgia Tech, our primary mentors, where there are quite a few very helpful and dedicated engineering students that help us out a LOT (not to mention the financial backing they help bring in ). In fact, this year we have converted one of the rooms in the school into a machine shop and are working out the details and purchase of the last pieces of large machinery we need to complete it. We are doing so much this year, both in and outside of the several competitions we are a part of, it makes my head spin .

My point? I think you guys have hit the nail on the head on what it takes to make a team strong. I think the moral of the story is if you have strong support in all of these elements, a team can really "explode" into the scene, allowing for even reletively new teams to become quite large quite fast. Thank you to everyone who has supported us, and stay tuned because it is going to be a very interesting, very fun year!

[Koko Ed]

We, of course, are an original team and , though I have been only involved for a couple of years, one thing I can plainly see is that the leadership team has installed a model for running the team every year and they stick to that plan. Consitency is the key. The kids are given the same level of expectations every year and are made to adhear to it. We have a strong leadership core to make sure that the ship is going in the right direction. We may not always build the strongest robots but we always walk around with our head up at being a model FIRST team.

[Ryan Foley]

Originally Posted by Mike Martus

All of this is true. If any element fails the team is sure to fail. For FIRST teams to get engrained in the school system school systems will need to decide to make the coaches a paid position like the basketball and football coaches.

We (team #47) are starting our 9th year. There are always struggles but we have managed to survive and look to the future. FIRST is a great educational program.

Not 100% true actually. To remain an active team, yeah then its most often true, sometimes not. To remain a strong team, no you dont need all of that.

Take my team for example.
2001 year, we were active, 15 seniors and 1 freshmen (me), JJA as a sponsor (Johnson and Johnston Associates).

2002: No more JJA, only remaining member left was me, went inactive. Saw 2002 game, really wanted to still be a part of FIRST so got a new team together and took our 2001 bot and modified it to play the 2002 game.

2003: team of 17, again inactive. Team was given a challenge of building a robot that can open a door, and succeeded in less than 6 weeks. Pretty strong team (for TRHS). Built 2 robots that could play the 2003 game over the summer, in 2 weeks (yes using some old frames, and 1 old drivetrain)

2004: Team of 25. Team was split in 2 during the fall for a training challenge, each having to build their own full size robot (complying to all 2003 FIRST rules) that could play a game I created. 7 weeks later, 2 of the best robots we have ever had are complete. And we are once again active, with a really strong team, the best we have ever had (including 2000 and 2001, our other active years)

2002, 2003, and for the training challenge this year, no engineers, no machine shop (and 2002 had no veterans but me). Only about $100 to be used 6 or 7 weeks to build the robot, for all 3 years.

Not trying to brag or anything, All I'm saying is this. The only thing a team needs to survive is people who want it to survive.

[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!!!!!!

[kevin.li.rit]

We were finding it hard to get enough teachers helping with our team, we did get another teacher to help us out which I am forever greatful for. We've also had more and more students join so our team appears to be doing very well right now.

[Pierson]

Our team, 360, is in our 5th year of competition. We started small. But before out 4th year, bylaws and a leadership corps were brought onboard. This has made life much easier since we have quadrupled in size since year 2.

We are still going strong, I agree that strong school administration support is very useful as is a strong mentor and a few very involved students. Someone (either a student, parent, or mentor) with strong ties to the business community makes funding much easier.