Members per team vs members who actually work

[Armando Gonzalez]

Well the title says it all. How many people do you have on your team and how many of them actually work?

For us, well, we have around 15 members of which 3-5 work hard on the project and the rest just eats pizza and don't contribute much.

It may sound kind of rude, but it would be nice knowing how the other teams work out.

Oh and please post how many people you have on your FIRST team.

[josecruz]

You just gotta love the slackers, eh?

I love my team!

[Deacon Blues]

Well all the engineers are always working. PR, however, not so much. We run out of things to do, so it generally becomes "hey clancy let me drive your car" or "oh man! vinyl machine! window stickers!" pretty quickly. I mean, when we work we do a whole lot and I do a good bit as the overall director of PR, but we certainly have a good bit of downtown to go trying out new taco bell meals.

[Lil' Lavery]

There's an old saying that applies pretty well to most reasonably sized FIRST teams that goes "20% of the people do 80% of the work".

[josecruz]

Originally Posted by Deacon Blues

Well all the engineers are always working. PR, however, not so much. We run out of things to do, so it generally becomes "hey clancy let me drive your car" or "oh man! vinyl machine! window stickers!" pretty quickly. I mean, when we work we do a whole lot and I do a good bit as the overall director of PR, but we certainly have a good bit of downtown to go trying out new taco bell meals.

Sounds like the life of a PR student is extremely arduous.

Eh, programming is pretty much the same thing. You can't really do much until the team finishes building the robot. Of course, we like to contribute to the process, but as programmers, we find little to do besides brainstorming and investigating neat concepts before the robot is finished.

[Armando Gonzalez]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

There's an old saying that applies pretty well to most reasonably sized FIRST teams that goes "20% of the people do 80% of the work".

I agree 100%.

[Pavan Dave]

What do you mean by work? There are students that do spend all of their time on robot stuff and then there are students who design posters and work with spirit that don't do as much robot stuff due to their own choices.

Also I have to agree with Sean and his saying of 20% of people doing 80% of the work because I have witnessed it.

[Athleticgirl389]

From the 2007 team, we had 30 students. At the beginning they all worked. Then they complained and got bored and come crunch time, maybe 7 were full out working on the robot or anything for that fact.

2008 team, however, looks to be VERY promising for Team 102 - a returning number of about 20-25 students with at least 14 new members who seem to be VERY dedicated as of now.

[r.pesquera]

This year it's starting to look bad for us. we're barely 4 working people on the team. I bet y'all we'll make it to the nationals though.

[Armando Gonzalez]

Originally Posted by Pavan

What do you mean by work? There are students that do spend all of their time on robot stuff and then there are students who design posters and work with spirit that don't do as much robot stuff due to their own choices.

Also I have to agree with Sean and his saying of 20% of people doing 80% of the work because I have witnessed it.

I define Work as the availability and willingness to help the team achieve the different goals.

If a person does not tie a single screw, but is always cheering for the team, getting sponsors and caring about all the members; he is working a ton!

[Scott Carpman]

PR- because engineers can't write.

[115inventorsam]

115 has a huge team, as of this past season, we had 90+ members, and we expect to have at least that same amount this year.
And you guys don't know how relieved I am to hear that so many teams suffer from the same problem.
I can't exactly pinpoint the percentage of members that are dedicated to the team, since Engineering works separate from Operations.
But anyways, our huge problem is that our Electrical division don't have enough to do while they wait for the Mechanical division to build the robot. So when we do need them, they're gone!

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

There's an old saying that applies pretty well to most reasonably sized FIRST teams that goes "20% of the people do 80% of the work".

I agree with that 100%!

[waiakea2024]

Heh heh this is funny.

[EricH]

Last year: 10 students, and about the same in mentors (maybe more). Actually working: All. Maybe not all the time, but everyone worked. Programming, training freshmen, Chairman's, weight, wiring, painting, machining, organizing the tools (again)...What else is there to do?

[=Martin=Taylor=]

I'd say 90% of the people on my team contribute in some way. Over the last two years we have all worked really well together.

However... Team 100 suffers from a very strange and difficult to define dilemma. I'm not sure if other teams have this same problem but it is something I have come to see as a major issue for team 100.

No one wants to design anything... What I mean by that is, 99% of the students want to be told what to do, and given careful instructions. They want to work in the shop and learn to use the tools... But almost none of them want to contribute to the design process.

I'm rather ashamed to say it, but I almost single handedly designed last year's robot. If it hadn't been for our dedicated mechanics mentor I would have had to design alone .

Hopefully more people will step up this year...