My team has close to no dedication

[Alaina]

hey all,

This year has been very difficult for me. I am the only student who has been on my team for more than one season. And even current seniors who were involved last year mainly helped at the end of the season, so they don't know a whole lot about building a robot.

I think I have about 6 new members who are the slightest bit enthusiastic about FIRST (they're all freshmen, so that kind of makes me optimistic for 2008, but that's not my point). I was the only upper-classman (out of 9) at my team's kickoff party. Then later some mentors showed up, and we strategized while the freshmen played video games.

It's not like I don't tell my team how the build season works. I send out at least 2 emails to the robotics list (yay for technology schools) every day. Whether we meet at lunch or after school most people don't show up. Yesterday we were supposed to have a brainstorming session yesterday and I was the only one there. It was extremely disappointing.

We currently don't have an engineering mentor. The engineer who owns our workspace is leaving on Monday to be in England for 3 weeks. I'm sure he'll let us access our workspace but it's going to be a struggle to get any good designs without an expert opinion. And it seems like my team just wants to sit around until he gets back!

What disappoints me the most is how my teachers don't want to spend any time outside of school to work on this. I thought they were here to help us?

A 3-day weekend is coming up and we'll only be meeting one of those days. I really wanted to have a running robot by the end of the weekend. But we can't do that because we don't have a) a workspace or b) adult supervision. On Monday we are going to use a kid's garage to work and that's it. Hopefully we'll get our workspace back by Wednesday.

How can I convince my team that I can't do this by myself? I want them to know what FIRST is and what build season is like, but it seems like none of them are interested enough. I hope you don't take this post the wrong way. What I've said here is definitely not a first thought. For anybody who has read all of this, I appreciate you 'listening' and hopefully you could give me some advice.

Have a good MLK weekend

-Alaina

[pakrat]

You should try using insentives, like give people little bits of candy if they come to meetings. Also, hjave like attendance awards, and you might want to think about attendance requirements for being a driver ( i bet some people would come then). I dunno, but those sound like the best ideas.

Don't lose hope!

[phrontist]

Wow, that really bites. Are there any teams nearby that could invade your team and whip those freshman into shape? Do they have a good concept of what FIRST is? How good it will feel if they do well? Try showing them competition video and pictures, to get them phsyched. Show them pics of what other people have done.

That being said, you NEED mentors. If these have a legitamate reason to ignore you, find others. If they don't, crank up the guilt.

[Amanda N.]

That's too bad.. it's frustrating having a team that isn't motivated to do anything. Last year the majority of our team was new, and most people weren't really into robotics until AFTER they had gone to the competition and seen how sweet competitions are.. (I was new too, but I heard enough robotics stories from my brother and dad to know that it was a pretty cool thing ) we had a pretty small group of people last year who consistently were at meetings and were actually productive when there.. I'm sure this year we still will have the people who just don't care, but I think some people will become more involved after having experienced one season..

My only ideas for you would be to show them some video/pics from competition or maybe get some past team members to come to a meeting or two and talk to them..


I doubt this helped much, but good luck with your team anyway

[russell]

Try to find something engaging for them to do. Break them into teams, and assign team leaders. Even if the team leaders are totally incapable it will give them something to do. Then give the teams tasks and give them deadlines, in addition to a breakdown of their task.

[Kim Masi]

What our team does is we have to log in a certain number of hours during the build phase in order to be able to go to the competitions. Maybe that is a motive to get kids to come, hope you have better luck!

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

I encourage you to forge as many close relationships with these people as you can. As far as you're concerned, you almost are a mentor. As an uperclassmen, you are probably an awesome model already for those enthusiastic freshmen. Well, play on your strengths. Give them something to do. Get them hyped up for the next meeting. If there is a university near by, try to find help from there, because those often have fantastic resources. I wish you the best of luck.

[indieFan]

Originally Posted by Alaina

What disappoints me the most is how my teachers don't want to spend any time outside of school to work on this. I thought they were here to help us?

If you're at a public school in CA, odds are that your teachers are not paid or are paid minimally to spend any time on this. Remember that this is an extra-curricular activity for them as well as for you. In addition, no teacher's job is done when the bell rings at the end of the day. There are lesson plans to be made, grading to be done, parent conferences, etc.

Re: Lack of Enthusiasm/Action
I've said it in another post, but I'll say it again here. Since most of your team was not around during last year's build, chances are they have no idea where to begin. The other college students that are helping out this year on one team are in a similar state. And, that's after hearing me talk about this for the last 4 years. As a result, very specific assignments need to be given out step by step so that they aren't as overwhelmed.

To get them started, I would assign students the task of downloading the instructions for building the chassis, others the task of downloading the instructions for the transmission. When they have them printed out, then have them build the chassis and transmissions as a team. This can be done without any machinery. (Yes, the chassis pieces need to be cut down to size, but that can be done with a hacksaw. Get two hacksaws and you can have the students compete to see who can get the job done quickest, yet safest.) Once that is done, you can move onto the electronics subsystem.

Hope this helps,
indieFan

[Digo]

In my team's rookie year (2000) we had a mentor from another team. Phil helped us a lot with his experience in FIRST, both in building the robot and organizing the team.

I remember I saw a film about FIRST competitions before I joined the group. Watching all that people having fun and the robots playing is something that made me very interested.

There are so many teams around, I think you can find someone to help (at least for some time, untill things get better) and I recommend showing competition videos too. Joining a FIRST team is a really exciting thing to do, and if people are not interested, something is wrong and may be fixed. Good luck!

[tiffany34990]

I'm very sry to hear about your team and no dedication. some of us don't realize it how lucky we are to have great mentors and students around us wanting to be apart of FIRST

perhaps you can show them or explain to them about FIRST and what it has done to you. inspiration is one great thing.

i agree with the others and saying divided up the tasks and make it a rule to come but there is a downfall to that of course b/c some may drop out. but some type of bribe may work.

i wish your team and all teams the best...FIRST is a great thing to be apart of once you see the beauty of it.

[Alaina]

Thanks, everybody, for such great suggestions. I didn't think I would get so many responses so quickly!

indieFan: You have a really great idea, the one where you make two teams and then put them together...But the problem with that is, I never know which people will show up to a meeting and which ones won't. I don't want to make one person head of the "chassis team" if he/she's going to be at an orchestra rehearsal after school instead. I think band/orchestra is the main thing pulling kids away from the team. That and anime. But I'll try it.

I think the closest team to mine is about 30 miles away. I'm not sure though.

My team has already been to Cal Games, and we were at RoboNexus. I don't see why they're not excited about this. They've all seen FIRST in action. I'd hate to be a strict leader and have members log hours but I might have to.

Does anyone think a lecture would work? =\
Like if I spent a lunch-time meeting telling them what I expect out of them and what they're missing out on?

You all have really great ideas. I'll take them all into considersation! *hugs everybody*

[Bharat Nain]

A lecture would work, BUT don't criticize or such. Try to keep most positive and tell them what will happen if they participate, but do tell them about what will happen if they don't participate and such. Mainly, show them how they will benefit. If you need help framing a lecture of this sort just contact me.

[pakrat]

yeah, a lecture could work as long as people feel like they are being vauled and stuff

[Karthik1]

Originally Posted by pakrat

yeah, a lecture could work as long as people feel like they are being vauled and stuff

Sorry Ric but, I don't know if a lecture would actually work, but its always worth a try. You never know it might help them realize that they have to get it together.

I would suggest something hands on. Most teams have a very hard problem keeping the new members involved. This year our team tried to keep the new members as busy as possible at the meetings. Before the season we had them build a test bed and the EDU bot. Now that season has started we had them build the kit bot. I think that if you want your members to participate and come to the meetings you should have an activity that every one can work on together, it could be anything from building a few tetras to making the gear boxes in the kit. If you can get them to work on something together and make them feel like they are apart of something then they will be hooked.

[Jaine Perotti]

Alaina,
I am very sorry to hear that this is happening to your team.
A few things regrading this issue I have posted here.
However, that situation was slightly different than yours.

If I were in your position, I would do two things... give them a lecture and a reality check (like Bharat said, not overly negative), and take a few actions of my own.

Lecture:

I think that your team is at a point where everyone can either start getting motivated and organized now, or not be able to have a season at all. If you are the only one on your team who is dedicated to make it happen, then most likely it won't (Not to say that you can't take on alot, because you already are, but FIRST is designed to be a team effort! There is no way only one person can do it by themselves!).

If I were the one saying this lecture, here is how it would go:

"This team is at a turning point. In order for us to have a season, we need to either come together as a group and focus on this, or we will not be competing at all. I know that you can make this happen if you want to, but only if you want to.

You need to make a choice about your personal priorities. If you want to get this team together, you MUST communicate with me. This means that you need to reply when I email you. This means that you need to show up to meetings when you say that you will. If you know that you are not going to dedicate yourself to this team and to this effort, then you shouldn't be here. This also means that you can't be doing things like playing video games while we need to get work done. I know that you can improve this, but I want you to realize that things have got to change if we are to pull through this year."

Actions:

As for getting your robot complete, why don't you start out by having them build the kitbot and then work from there? It can be assembled quite quickly, and may be a good starting point to get them motivated. you can even try to assign them roles for the different aspects of the robots construction...roles are good because they give a more focused and dynamic feel to the group.

Also try to assign deadlines for the completion of certain tasks. Deadlines will give your team a better sense for the urgency of the situation.

Above all, make it clear that it is ultimately their choice; only they can save the team. If they choose not to, then you may be forced to let go of the team for a year. But I would rather have no team at all than be faced with the frustrating task of trying to do it all by myself.

Avoid defeatism however; add some optimism to your conduct with them by making it clear that they CAN do this... they DO have the capability to pull this off, and it is not too late to change things for the better. All they need to do is focus. Once they are focused, anything is possible.

Hope this helps. Please continue to update us on your team's progress.

-- Jaine