Team leader

[Karthik1]

What does the team leader do in your team, how important is he/she, and how is he/she picked?

[Joe Matt]

What type of team head? Here's a little write up on student heads.

384 has had a few different setups for student team leads/project managers/presidents.

1.) Hand vote. Simple, yet easily swayed. I'm not a huge fan of this since it's popularity that matters. Ironically enough, this is how I was elected.

2.) Private vote. Simple again, place name for prez (and other officers) on a piece of paper (usually has the names on them for those in the running, mostly seniors, and they just circle them then). The votes are counted and their is a winner.

3.) Mentor meeting. Most undemocratic and most comprehensive. This vote is a majority done by our mentors on our team, including all parent mentors. This was about 12 people. Anyway, the merrits of all contendors was discussed and what they could offer. My favorite since it puts the best man in the position, not the most popular.

As for what our team head does, well, that's varried on the person and the team. I've seen people do nothing, people do everthing (including building and administrative), and people in the middle. I find those who are away from building the robot and other parts do the best, followed by those who build, then those who do nothing.

They are important to have not only because it's eaiser on the main team head, but because it unifies the student part of the team.

[Steve Howland]

For selecting our captains we have about a week at the end of the school year when we can email our head mentor with suggestions for next year's captains. Then those selected are asked if they want to run, which everyone generally agrees to. Next the team captains from last year talk to the mentors after the meeting and they discuss who would be the best role models for our team.

The jobs that they have vary but are not too overwhelmingly important. They generally continue what they had been doing (driver, fundraising), but also have a little more arguing power with mentors and can set up meetings of their own if they want to. They also try to keep an eye on everything and lead presentations when trying to recruit new members.

[Greg Needel]

*note this is not how we run things but just my opinion

i think that the team leader should be a student who openly shows an eagerness to be involved, also someone who is friends with a good portion of the team.

i think the role they should play is keeping the group together and encouraging their peers. they also should be in charge of the time line making sure that people are on track, acting as a liaison between the different sub teams.


picking should be biased on performance and interest

[Alex Golec]

In my opinion, leaders do not need to be picked. They natural emerge as time goes on and as more opportunities are presented to them. Our team has no single leader or captain. Students take charge of various projects on the robot and make contributions to the overall administration of the team. Every person has leadership qualities in themselves, and they should bring them out to contribute to the team.

_Alex

[Koko Ed]

We have a leadership team (5 or 6 engineers and one teacher)that oversees what the team does and a student liason who is the in-between for student concerns which they bring to the leadership team. The student laison is voted on by the other students.

[Bcahn836]

This year we did something different, we had some leadership training courses. The mentors picked students who they thought were the top leaders on the team. That ended up to be like 12 of us. We had meetings to learn what a leader is and how to be a good leader, we had these meetings every Thursday for a month. After deciding on the leadership system we had an anonymous vote for each leadership position. For example captain of the public relations sub team, who ever wanted that position would raise their hand and the we the student leaders would vote. When it came to the president spot three people volunteered to have that position, so we voted. Now that president has to keep track of all of the sub teams, and report back to the lead mentor. So the president has to keep in touch with all of the sub team captains, know what their needs are and see that they are met or at least known about by our lead mentor. The president is also in charge of having any extra meetings of the leaders and or mentors if needed. And finally the president must know what is going on in each sub team each meeting and add and knowledge and opinion if needed.

[Amanda M]

Well, to pick captains on our team we basically have a team vote. And that vote sounds like a popularity contest, but the way we figured it was that the team was going to pick a person that they didn't mind following all year round. If the person they pick does well in the leadership position then the team will follow what they say. If the person doesn't do well in the leadership position, then the mentors have the right to take the person from his or her position.

Our hierarchy is a little different though. We have a president that is kind of an overseer, a mentor to the team. All other members have the option of becoming a project manager, but the president is kind of the overall project manager and makes sure everything goes well. In the event that the president can't do their job, then the VP would step up. So the VP is the..uh.. assistant overall project manager.
This lets our team be a little more student run, and gives our metors a break from all the crazy stuff they have to do while we're planning random presentations and shows.

[greencactus3]

Originally Posted by Alex469

In my opinion, leaders do not need to be picked. They natural emerge as time goes on and as more opportunities are presented to them. Our team has no single leader or captain. Students take charge of various projects on the robot and make contributions to the overall administration of the team. Every person has leadership qualities in themselves, and they should bring them out to contribute to the team.

_Alex

agreed. especially in small teams as ours where we all share the same load of work. no subteams. all just one group who all does all

[Melissa Nute]

The process changed from year to year. For two of the years, a leader naturally emerged so that a vote wasn't even needed. Our mentors gave input on what they wanted as a leader, so that it was obvious who they wanted it to be. In the years we had a vote, that input aided in who was chosen.

[Joe J.]

Well our team is considered a club by our schools so we don't have a team captain instead we have positions that a club would have (President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer.) the people who fill these positions are know as the teams officers. To fill these positions we have nominations and elections at the end of each school year.

As for small group leaders firstly we have three main small groups mechanical (drive train, and device), Controls (hardware, software), and Program Management/ Strategy the leaders of these 3 groups are picked by each group but we pretty much know they will be in charge so getting picked is just a formality.

the president runs our weekly meetings

Each officer can work in whatever area of team they want just like all of out team members.

Each team member is important to the team in a different way it all depends on how much time and effort they put into the team.

as to if its important to have a leader that really depends on your team size
if your team is small around 15 students it would be helpful but not necessary (our first year we didn't have a student leader)because everyone more or less know what the others are doing and what needs to be done. but if you have a large team like we had last year(73) and this year (65 +) it is important to have a student leader just because of the size of the team you need someone to organize what is going on within the team

[Karthik1]

Our team is very small 15 to 20 students, and only 7 senior members. We elected our president/leader.

I am not sure what our president dose thats why I asked this question.

[Dorienne]

1) The team leader basically runs all meetings, and all "polls" we have on things. Ex: what name we'll pick for the robot or something of the sort. The leader also finalizes any decisions the team itself makes, and pretty much tells everyone what needs to be done.
2) They are extremely important. To the team and overall. If it weren't for them, there would hardly be any order. We're as independent a team as possible, so if we didn't have a president, the whole team would be no more within a year or two. We try to make it as student-run and built (robotwise) as possible. So we do indeed need a team president.
3) The leader is picked by the advisor of the team, that being Mr. Mason, a teacher at our school (well, erm, duh.). However, if the vice president of the previous year was a junior, then they become president in the following year. if both vice president and president are seniors, then the teacher chooses who becomes president and vice president the following year.

[dubious elise]

the team leaders generally run the meetings and make sure that everyone knows what is going on every night (and occasionally day) of the week. we have different "captains", if you will, for each area of the team like driving, programming, 3D animation, website, mechanical, electrical, etc etc etc.

from what i have seen, leaders tend to appear rather than be selected. whoever shows enthusiasm, willingness, and expertise in their area generally takes over that area either that year or in the years to come. personally, i fell in to the position of running weekly meetings because i was willing to assemble all of the information for the week that everyone needed to know.

[Anthony Kesich]

We have actually ended up running our team like a corporation. We have a President, two Vice-Presidents (one for Construction and one for the more business related aspect of the team such as PR and accounting), and departments heads. The departments heads and president we have had the past 2 years, but the 2 vice presidents emerged just recently. We didn't even have to vote to choose our president this year, but for VP it tied, so we decided on this new system. So far, it looks like it will work well.