How Do You Treat New Members/Freshmen ?

[purplehaze357]

well you know that most of this is just all in fun and most is a joke...please dont take it personally its not like freshman its just that theyre low on the totem pole just like i once was and everyone else was or has been...the freshies on the team are newbies and sometimes they are the victims but its all in fun and they eventually...its not like theyre tormented to the point where they quit and quite honestly w/o freshman FIRST has no future so its not freshman...

Firewolf....its ok...theyre are many like u and quite honestly the hardest working kids tend to be the freshman...its just that well theyre newbies and get hazed...nothing against u

-Joe

[Shelley_delphi chick]

My freshman year was the year after our team had won Nationals and most of the people on the team the year before had been seniors, so they were all gone. As a freshman girl, non the less, I became very well known around the shop. I knew how to work and opperate all the machines in the metal shop and most of them in the wood shop. No one my freshman year tormented me or hazed me, just because I was a freshman. Maybe being one of only 5 girls that was on the team then helped alittle, but still they gave me a job to do and I took care of it. My Sophmore year I walked into a captain position as the AV team captain and still maintaine that rule today. As a girl on the team I'm also Metal shop speacialist and our head teachers thrid arm and leg at times. He hates doing paper work and things are always in piles everywhere. I'm a complete neat freak.... AHHHHHHH The insanity!!



To all newbies that are joining a FIRST team........

Hold your heads high and don't let anyone tell you to shut up, sit down, and tell you your ideads don't matter. You are the future for FIRST and the future in science and technology. Live up to your fellow team members standards and walk into the seniors shoes that are leaving. Girls espically get in there and help those guys out, they'll respect you more when you know what you are talking about. Alittle dirt has never hurt anyone. Remeber what FIRST stands for and remember upperclassman you have people under you looking up to you and taking notes, don't act a fool!!

[Renzorocks]

there was only one freshman i liked! she was really cool and not even compare to the others. the others were annoying, i really did give them a bunch of opportunities but they just don't seem to change. but in a way i guess they brought some fun to the group and made it a little more challenging.

"All your off season comp are belong to us"

[Michael Murphy]

It seems to me that there are two types of newbie

The first type joins the team and actually does work, makes contributions, and earns the respect of the senior members of our team.

The second type just joins for the heck of it. They don't do much on the team, and often end up quitting the team.

When I joined TJ², I was definitely a member of the second group. As a rookie, I had no idea what I was doing, and subsequently, didn't travel. My second year, I did contribute, then finally became useful in my third year, co-leading the administrative team.

So anyway, the moral of this story is- don't give up on newbie failures. They can still learn.

[Firewolf]

"Firewolf....its ok...theyre are many like u and quite honestly the hardest working kids tend to be the freshman...its just that well theyre newbies and get hazed...nothing against u"~purplehaze357

wha? me, huh? i havent even posted on this thread!
and i'm a jr, and a girl, and i've gotta say, i hold sum amout of power over some of the ::ahum:: males on my team...
and it doesn't have to do w/ looks (believe me), or expereance...
but its all about attitude, how much of ur self are u willing to put on the line? How much of ur meger mental power are u going to put into positive Robotix movement...
and how much of it are u gonna put into that game ur playing in the back of the room on the comp?...
i mean, i can NOT give respect to those people, disregarding rank, who waste the time of the team... as well as our air...
so if ur gonna walk around w/ ur tail between ur legs, and ur head so low it's touching the ground, ur not gonna get good treatment...
and i'm not one of positive self-esteem,
but u gotta know who to talk to, how to approch them, ect.

I personally treat EVERYONE by this rule, bigger (most of the team) smaller (.... um... ) and if ur going to be useless, and not willing to work, then ur prob. going to get the bad treatment from the team, no one wants dead weight... u'll put is over the weight limit, and when we gotta drill the holes.. u'll be the 1st to go...

but on norm cases, i'll stand up for the freashies, the R new, and they gotta learn the ropes.. sure it's fun to push them off the tightrope once in a while just make sure there's someone to catch them one the bottom,
cauz in a case like that, and it's just 'i wanna be mean... b/c ...i'm bigger'
i'll end up being ur karma...

there IS a reason i'm called '5 feet of fury'


((*Mr.Volcano... u could never threaten to eat me.... 1) if u ever did u'd get indegestion.. and 2)... i can just ask for a hug
))

[purplehaze357]

i must be retarded...im sorry firewolf...i was talkin to jessjank that posted right before me...my bad...and yeah ima junior too

[Firewolf]

no prob bob,
i was just a lil confused, like, "uh-oh, did i post on this and i don't know 'bout it?"
but it's aite, don't sweat it

[purplehaze357]

haha...ight...thanks

[zouby]

Although i am a freshman and i am not fluent in english i had one AWESOME year in FIRST and Team 118. I don`t remember anybody treating me bad, never. Well of course there are always people who try to make you do things but ... we got to live with that right?!... There were 2 more frehsmen on the team.. i believe it was the same with them or at least with one of them... because the other guy was responsible for the batteries and ... you know... WHAT!? there are no charged batteries!!!?... BATTERY BOY ,,, where are you ?..

I myself, even though being freshman, don`t like freshmen.. hehe... the thing that i hated is the fact that i didn`t get to go to Nationals, that`s all.. the other two freshmen stayed here in Houston, so did i,... we had to watch TV and online... blahhh... ;(...

I have no idea how i will treat freshmen but i won`t be 100% nice ,hehe...

[clodhopper]

When underclassmen get out of hand, I use a little move I invented, called the "skyhook". just the mention of the term is usually enough to close even the most obnoxious mouth. ask anyone from team 247, its legendary.

[mtaman02]

Other then using our "NEW" team members as Crash Dummies we welcome them by interviewing them. Some of teh things we look for is if they are dedicated, they have a potential to learn, the ability to improve the team and the way it can improve the school, Basically we're looking for a grade 65 Student with a brain. Thats very hard to come by in my school but we manage. No passing grade. No team. Fail a class = suspension, Fail the same class twice in a row = complete termination from the team. If they pass the interview we then use them to handle dangerous robot equipment and tie them to the field and continously run them over to judge how high our robot can climb. "Hence WILMA's treads" Took alot of people to test her height.

[Aaron Lussier]

Nashua Possibly has the wierdest school system ever. Ours goes like this K-6 , 7-9 , then 10-12. Pretty funny huh Any way this mean when ever new people come to school they are all ready sophmores. During Orientation day we have about 120 people sign up for the team, After we get through team buildings and stuff we have weeded out about 50 or 60 of them. That leaves about 60 brand new people which the vets have to contend with to deal with this we run through the first two weeks giving them the worst jobs that we can think of we dont make them get drinks or anything just stuff dealing with the robot like clean the mech room and start deburring parts when them start coming in. By the end of the six weeks we have shrunk the team to almost 60 total including vets and engineers. Its seems to work good for us. Got to go now I would type more but I have to go rock climbing.

[Jeff Waegelin]

That system isn't too weird. It isn't as common as the K-5, 6-8, 9-12 anymore, but it used to be the most common format. I know some districts in my area use such a system.

[Ryan Foley]

This is an interesting story for you. Last year (2001) I was a freshman, 1 of 2. Naturally I always got told to shut up and all the usuall stuff people do to feshies. This year I'm the team captain. Also this year, we didnt compete officially, we modified our 2001 robot to use at some post season competitions this year. It has been really fun, considering we have done more work on the bot than students of the past 2 years combined. Heres the bad part. MY TEAM IS 90% FRESHIE!!!!!! We have 2 sophmores (myself included, and 1 junior, then everyone else is a freshie. Some freshies arent that bad, i have one who has done more work than many people of the team, and is more mature than our junior. Every other freshie simply sits there, wastes time telling "your mama" jokes, goes on the computers and plays games etc. Thats mainly the reason why it took us 4 months to design the bot, missing about 4 mini competitions. So then the other day, my advisor told me to start chossing drivers, HP's, etc. So every freshmen that spent the months wasting time, not helping in any way, not coming to even half the meetings, all come up to me and ask me to be drivers. Gotta love the stupidity of most freshmen.

[Katie_269]

Well on my team, we kinda ignored them at first, but after we got to know them a little better it was all good. They learned a lot from the older kids. After all they are the one's who are gonna be leading the team when we go, so they need to be taught the right way to do things.

Talk to everyone later,
Katie