Am I the only person with this job?

[Erin]

Littlefish and other posters-

I don't consider having all the unusual tasks such a terrible thing. I have always felt like the band-aid- or what Norm on my team calls me- the "X-Factor". I just kinda jump up and do whatever anyone needs help with. Even when I was captain in 2000 I was putting tape on the rumble sticks, showing other teams our animation and finding misc. parts from other teams. Sometimes being the band aid can be a team's lifesaver. And oh yeah, I tried doing a newsletter after 2000 and then I just gave it up...there was just too much else to do

[Andrew Dahl]

We have a team full of those!!!

most of them are the most unassuming people in the great and then they have therese awesome falshes of brilliance and stun the living bejesus out of the team and we look a t them for the rest of the comp- day ect with new respect and awe


i however am still wainting for that moment


dahl

[Joe Ross]

We had a newsletter like what you describe in '98. We distributed it to all the team members as well as to important people at the school and our sponsors. Each week we had a seperate student write it. This required that everyone know what was going on for at least one week

We haven't done it since then, but I don't know why.

[Matt Ryan]

We have a newsletter for PR purposes and it is written and published by our Chairman's Award group.

They put in FIRST's mission, then it gives the community an update as to what is going on during the Six Weeks of Hell. Thats our newsletter (well...the last one I've actually read ).

[Jay Lundy]

Hm.... newsletter... good idea. Too bad we were so increadibly unorganized this year, we barely even had a contact list for the team throughout the year. This is the first year the team has been at Bellarmine and we only had 2 students who had been on a team before, it was just nuts. Anyway, a newsletter sounds like a great idea, not only to inform team members about important dates but also to advertise our team in our area and school. We haven't really had a chance to do much of that.

[looneylin]

our team is small, so we don't have a newsletter. actually, like the entire school doesn't even know we exist or that we were building a robot. anyway, i do everything. i mean everything i can... so just keep bugging ur teacher about ur skills n maybe u can do other stuff...or u can just hang out n touch shiny stuff. hehe!

[FizMan]

For those teams that have the haphazard system of sending out emails to their team members and all, perhaps you should consider getting a forum? If you go to http://proboards.com you can register a forum - already setup, hosted, everything - for free. It takes liek 30 seconds.

Our team has a forum of sorts and it works wonders. We do a lot of communicating on it since not all the team members come out to meetings (and some of us are alumni working ) We try to make participation in it mandatory, but it doesn't always work.

[soezgg]

If our team had a newsletter, it would be used primarily as kindling or casually discarded with the rest of the preachy trash that people recieve today in the mail.

We do however, have an email announcement system that notifies members of important events and news concerning meeting and such.

As for interesting jobs, we have most of the normal administrative positions. When it comes to component and system teams, it all starts in some sort of ideal structure, but this has a half life of about 24 hours and slowly the team turns into about 13 dedicated students working on whatever part they have the ability to help with.

[boy_scout72688]

[i] Now I have an interesting job. Not only am I the programmer I am also the one responsible for getting all the updates from Cheif Delphi and then getting all the team updates from first. My main odd job on the team is to tell everyone the rules and make sure they relize them and when they do they tell me to shut up and leave us alone. Our team is still really small and I am in the process of working on getting a news letter made up. Our mentor can be stupid at times and I have to fight through him. If we get a news letter it would be an update for us and the school and community. If anyone had any suggestions. Contact me at boy_scout72688@yahoo.com


James Bowers
Team 1243

[Dan Zollman]

Originally Posted by boy_scout72688

[i] Now I have an interesting job. Not only am I the programmer I am also the one responsible for getting all the updates from Cheif Delphi and then getting all the team updates from first....

I had a similar job this year. I worked on our Rookie All-Star entry, but I was also the communications person, so I kept our manual binder up-to-date.

We're going to start a newsletter next year for the Tech & Engineering Club (the umbrella club) which will probably be quarterly, and will be for parents, interested teachers and students in the school, administrators, and I suppose donors. We have a lot more people in the club than just the robotics team, and the club does a lot of other activities too, so it would probably be broader. I would expect that our PR person would oversee it, but we'd also choose a separate newsletter person and committee to write it and do layout.

[Jeff K.]

Actually, there's one guy on the team that everyone hates. So we make him be everyone's slave. It's not too graciously professional, but everyone hates him, and we 'can't' kick him out. But he comes in handy sometime when you ask for a tool, chances are he's playing around with it. Actually, that's one of the reasons why everyone hates him is because he's ennoying and plays with the tools when we need them. Sometimes, our teacher yells at us how we should treat people with respect, but it's funny telling him to go find a tool that we have and he spends like an hour trying to find it.

[KathieK]

Originally Posted by Stonefan5271138

Actually, there's one guy on the team that everyone hates. So we make him be everyone's slave. It's not too graciously professional, but everyone hates him.

Not everyone will "like" everyone else on a team. But a team is just a mirror of what you'll find in any work place. You'll have to learn how to work with people of all types, including ones you 'hate". Maybe if someone asked him what he's interested in, he could be given meaningful work to do so he isn't always sitting around playing with the tools you need. Find out the reason he joined the team. He may have talents that you are overlooking (everyone has some area they excel at) - maybe he can be your Public Relations guy, or the Spirit person. Or the Team Safety Captain. Maybe he's figured out a different way to look at the game, strategically. Maybe he's just got one of those personalities that rubs people the wrong way, but like it or not he's still part of your team. It's time to make him feel a part of it.

[nkauj_ntxoo16]

Well, I don't think our team writes newsletter(s), but we do make newspapers every year. On the other hand, though, it is a subteam. This subteam has a scale of 5-10 people in it that helps write about a certain topic for the newspaper. I'm not quite sure, but I do believe that it is somewhat similar to having to write a newsletter. It is pretty fun since you get to jump into your own team's history in detail!!

[Sam Lipscomb]

our team has a newsletter, and i'm the editor. three times a year i bother people until they agree to write an article, and even -then- i only get three people, who write one article each and leave me to write at least three myself. then i put everything together, and edit it, and add pictures, and print copies, and fold/label/mail each newsletter. hahahaha i love my life.

our newsletter is basically for public relations, but it does go out to parents so they can see what kind of community activities we attend. of course, we do have an email system for the team, so we all know about the next meeting/build session and how robot progress is going. we also have a daily log on our website that outlines what went on during any given day, in case someone missed a session.

that's not my only job though, so it's a bit different from your situation. i maintain the team website and the daily log, memorize the manual so people can come to me with questions about the rules , and make graphics/textures for our animation. robotics is -definitely- life!

our newsletter articles are on our website - go to http://shsrobotics.org, enter the site, and click news.

[LPaton716]

We have one that comes out once a year or so...We do a lot of community fundraising and we send one to each of our sponsers.

But the mother who got it together daughter is graduating, and she is focusing more on Lego robotics at her school. So I would love to start one...say once a robotics season (build, off, competition, pre)

I also would like our local newspaper to have a technology column every week. (And well environmental too, the natural world is my passion, be where else can I get hands on experience with hand tools?...I certainly don't have a jig saw)

Newsletters are important for building up your extended community. There are many people who want to know what kids are doing these days but don't know how to ask or where to find out. A newsletter scattered around the school is a great start.

Do any teams have technology nights/forums to discuss and showcase their work that is open to the public and well advirtised? I think it's a great idea but advertising can be difficult.

Best of luck writing and spreading the word to all teams,


BTW How is everyone doing with Dean's challenge?