It hurts to exclude people from the team, but...

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by JBotAlan

Hey all,

We recently had a student join our team that did not fit in.

That's pretty surprising since there is no typical student in First. (Mentors either for that matter!) Every student should be given a chance and there should never be deadlines if a student wants to be on the team. I know that some students just never reach a comfort level but these are usually first year team members and they get the hang of it after a season or two. Team members should be admonished whenever this type of thing occurs. We are a team afterall. A Really Big Team, I know but that shouldn't matter. I feel deeply for every student that doesn't stay with the team, and so every effort should be made to keep everyone on the team. If we can figure out how to make a robot in six weeks, a little thing like personality conflict should be easy to overcome. If this isn't about building robots, then keeping students engaged is our highest priority.