When to split the team

[Allison K]

Personally, I'd make a list of all of the options for the extra funds and decide as a team which one you think would make the biggest impact on the students. Yes, one option is registering a second team. Would that be more effective than enabling the first team to go to a second regional? That's for your team to decide. If your team is dead set on having the females take on some lead roles you could always have the males run one event and the females the other. Other potential options include investing in machines and tools to help build the robot, training materials (such as a VEX kit), or saving some money to build a practice field.

My initial reaction is that running two simultaneous teams is a lot of work (my team worked with two others last season) and should be well thought out before making a commitment, however the are certainly groups of teams that excel at co-building and prefer that environment. One thing to be wary of with registering a second team is what happens if many of the new members drop out before build season. Even if you have enough to register another team, the time and effort it takes to build a second robot (even one of the same design if you were to choose to do that) is easily underestimated.

Good luck in decision making!

~Allison