how often does your team meet during build season?

[vivek16]

We will be having a rookie informational meeting in a couple of days and I was just wondering how often your team meets during build season?

I was thinking maybe have meetings monday through saturday. Saturdays are mandatory and you could chose three out of five for the rest of the meetings. Should we make all of the meetings mandatory (if they have something they can talk to mentors/leadership but mostly come)? or less meetings?

thanks, vivek

[njamietech]

we have build meetings every day after school till 8:00 or later and sometimes we have builds on saturdays. But we do have builds every single weekday until the build season is over. the only thing is we don't require people to come they just come if they can or wan't to.

[Brian J. R.]

1983's meeting schedule is monday to thursday, from after school (3:30) till we are done. Which on good days is 8:00, but we have gone till 2:30 in the morning. Now we tried this last ear, and as the build season progressed, it shifted from 4 days to monday-saturday till we where done. All days where mandatory.

[RyanN]

364's Schedule:
Monday 3:30 to 8:00PM
Tuesday 3:30 to 8:00PM
Thursday 3:30 to 8:00PM
Saturday 1:00 PM to ~6:00PM (If we need to get things done, we'll stay later)

Nearing the end of build season we will sometimes work on Wednesdays and we also stay very late on Saturdays (I've been working on the robot until midnight before)

[Aren_Hill]

We meet every weekday 3-9ish (gets later towards the end) and then saturday from 9-? (usually quite late), and sundays 10-? so every single day of the week basically

i also have put in 55 hour weeks towards the last 3 weeks usually, i pride myself on never missing a meeting and being the first one there and the last to leave.

[Michelle Celio]

1065 used to meet Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 4-8 pm.

I'm not sure how 2023 works just yet.

[JaneYoung]

FRC 418 typically meets:
Monday - Thursday, 3:40 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Saturday, 8:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

There is usually one teacher workday and we meet a good part of that day, time arranged depending on our teacher's schedule.

We have met on Fridays and have worked late into the night but only when deemed absolutely necessary. Instead, we try very hard to set realistic goals for each sub-team per week and stick to them.

This year, we are talking about forming a tutoring/study group within the team. If anyone has suggestions on how to do that, please send me a PM. It would be very helpful and appreciated.

Regarding mandatory meetings: we require service hours. Because the team has grown so much this year, we will be changing the amount of hours required in order to qualify for travel. During build, the lead teacher will call a 'few' mandatory meetings of the team leaders, sub-team leaders, and mentors. He will call one or two team meetings and he will call one parent travel meeting toward the end of build. If a student steps forward to assume a lead position on the team, it is the expectation that he/she will be there consistently. If they can not be there, they are to notify the lead teacher and/or the mentor they are working with. If a sub-team leader can not be there, it is their responsibility to tell their team leader and/or project manager. The project manager, who is often the team leader, will have weekly meetings with the sub-team leaders. Students who work on the different aspects of the build, including the Chairman's Award and the Woodie Flowers submission, are expected to attend as much as they can but not to the detriment of their classes/grades. School comes first on our team. It is very sad to work hard on the build and then have a failing 6 weeks - unable to travel. Time management is a big plus in having a successful build and competition season.

Edit: during design phase, the design teams meet on their own and during that week, the whole team meets from after school into the evening hours for 2 nights.

[Spiffizzle]

In past years, our team has gone Monday - Friday after school until as late as 10:30pm (however, the leave time varies and usually reaches this extreme closer to ship-date). Usually, by then, the number of kids has whittled down to those who are busy working on something and have lost track of the time. And on Saturdays from 9am - 4pm (give or take a few hours).

I don't know how any other teams handle their late nights, but our parents support us by scheduling a different parent to bring meals. Each weeknight, a different parent comes with salad, pasta, pizza, chicken, and more, for the team to eat.

On Saturdays, we have a parent bring bagels or once, pancakes, for breakfast and another to bring some sort of mass sandwich or otherwise for lunch.

This year, we are considering establishing a weekday which we take off to catch up on homework and sleep, inspired by one of our teammates.

Hope this different team perspective helps!

[KTorak]

Usually everyday from 3:00pm to at least 7/7:30 pm and towards the end we will stay as late as 10:30/11:00pm. We usually meet on Saturdays and Sunday's in the afternoon for 5-8 hours, increasing to 10+ in the end.

[Phil Mack]

I asked this same question a little while ago in thread http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=59083

I found it very helpful to compare the results of the poll the the teams performance data on http://thebluealliance.net/

What i found interesting is that for the most part, time spent correlated with performance: the more time a team spent, the more likely the team was to have performed well. However, there were some notable exceptions on both ends of the spectrum.

Of course, the poll is unscientific and the data isn't necessarily accurate, but still interesting.

~Phil

[lukevanoort]

Originally Posted by vivek16

Saturdays are mandatory

Keep in mind that Judaism requires that its adherents rest on Saturday. Although, similar to Sunday in Christianity, it might only matter to orthodox Jews. Not being Jewish, I don't really know how strictly the Sabbath is observed. Similarly, Friday is not a good choice for a mandatory meetings since it is a special day for Muslims. Although, a meeting on Friday is not as big a problem for Muslims as one on Sunday for Christians or Saturday for Jews since that day is different from the other days by a change in the noontime salah. Thus, it probably would only impact meetings if school gets out not long after noon.

[JackN]

There are members up at school working everyday of the week. We meet at 7:00 at night during the weekdays, to allow for our mentors to get home from work and to allow for our students to get their homework done. Most nights we work until 10:30. On Saturday we work from noon until about 11 or 12, and then on Sundays we are there from two until about 9-10. Students are required to make it twice a week and Tuesday is mandatory for all students/mentors, we have full team meetings where each sub-team reports on their progress and any info for the whole team is dispensed.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by lukevanoort

Keep in mind that Judaism requires that its adherents rest on Saturday. Although, similar to Sunday in Christianity, it might only matter to orthodox Jews. Not being Jewish, I don't really know how strictly the Sabbath is observed. Similarly, Friday is not a good choice for a mandatory meetings since it is a special day for Muslims. Although, a meeting on Friday is not as big a problem for Muslims as one on Sunday for Christians or Saturday for Jews since that day is different from the other days by a change in the noontime salah. Thus, it probably would only impact meetings if school gets out not long after noon.

From the Roman Catholic point of view, Sundays are not a day of rest like Saturday for Judaism (actually Friday sunset to Saturday sunset) - we just need about an hour to attend church (some Christian masses are longer) and we're good to go.

It should go without saying: If Robots interferes with any aspect of your life (Schoolwork, Religion, Schoolwork, Family, Schoolwork, Work, Rest, Sleep, etc...), Robots is the one you should let slide. A robot build season is 6 weeks; your life is lifetime thing.

That being said: Spiffzizzle's post notwithstanding, a 32 hour build week is not unusual, and late in the game it goes even longer.

Don

[Blue_Mist]

Compared to the rest of these replies, not that often. We meet Wednesdays from 5:00pm-9:00pm, Fridays from 5:00pm-9:00pm and Saturdays from 9:00am-5:00pm. Luckily, the ship date has always been right after a four-day weekend, so Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday it's 9:00am-5:00pm. On that last Monday, it's been 9:00am-11:00pm and later. None of the meetings are mandatory, but the main people on the team usually try to make it to all of the meetings.

[Blue_Mist]

Originally Posted by JackN

...Tuesday is mandatory for all students/mentors, we have full team meetings where each sub-team reports on their progress and any info for the whole team is dispensed.

Also, instead of team update meetings, I send out an email with notes after each build session detailing what we did, what we need to get done next session, and any other information regarding the robot, like parts ordered, etc. The entire team meets only when there is something important that we all need to discuss. That way, we keep non-productivity to a minimum.