Team Organization and Recruiting

[Lisa Rodriguez]

Originally Posted by KathieK

Maybe a better question would be, how do you inspire a student to be a productive member of the team? And show up for meetings, contribute to the committees they have chosen to work on, not sleep through competitions, break team travel rules, not use the meetings for socializing with the members of the opposite gender?

While I agree that "belonging" to a team may be very important to a student, there are consequences in the real world for not performing on your job.

Yea Mrs K!
One more thing, how do you recruit kids that you know are going to work hard? Or if you don't know, how do you prevent them from being dead weight? I know there will always be some kids that will be there, but is there a way to prevent an overabundance of non-contributing kids BEFORE build season?

[samson234]

Unfortunately my team suffers from a similar problem, First Lady. We go though an interview process every year and share with the teachers what we have learned that year. Also, we tell them our where we want to be at the close of the next year. This works very well but, not always do you see a kid who will do absolutely nothing before they make it to the team. Just remember that keeping a kid on the team who takes little interest in the team is denying another kid the FIRST experience.

[KathieK]

Originally Posted by samson234

Just remember that keeping a kid on the team who takes little interest in the team is denying another kid the FIRST experience.

Exactly! When you tell someone that your team has reached its capacity, and then have students who are not really pulling their weight (and we have a variety of opportunities that could interest just about anyone) is it fair to the student you turned away?