How many students does it take to maintain a team?

[Marc P.]

I know this sounds very un-FIRSTish, but I think last year (Houston championship) was a true test of dedication to FIRST. I remember in 2000, we had 30 people sign up for Nonnebots. Roughly half of them would talk about nothing more than the "cheap ride to Disney." By the time the build season came around, we had about 15-16 students left. For the past 2 years, since the change away from Disney for championships, I've never seen more than 15 or 16 turn up for the initial planning meetings, and we ended up with 14-15 students on the team for both years. In any case, we've done pretty well with around that number. Of course, not all students could be there at all times, but we ended up with a core group of 8-10 dedicated students who were at every meeting, and it works out fine.

The Friday Judges award at UTC went to team 1059, I believe they are a team of 3 students and 2 engineers. To rehash what many have already said- it's quality, not quanity that makes a team.

I am curious though, how larger teams (35+ students) are managed. How's the leadership structure? Do you have sub-groups work on different projects? How do you decide who the operators/human players are with a group that large?