Role of Team Captain

[Techgirl675]

On team 675 the captain is our 'team leader' their job is to make sure each division is running smoothly and to assist our head mentor in whatever needs to be done for the team weather it be setting up a fundraiser or budget work. They run our meetings and they are not guaranteed anything else. Our drive team consists of who ever does the most work, attends trainings and works best together.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by thefro526

I'm a large supporter of the idea that Drivers should not be part of the Pit Crew, and shouldn't even have to worry about fixing the robot unless absolutely necessary.

The exception is eliminations. At that point, if the drivers don't know how to fix some of the robot, even the extra pit crew probably won't help...

As far as drivers and pit crew, drivers should at least know the easy stuff--thrown/broken chain, best guess at what's wrong with the control system this time, breaker/wire insertion, and what's likely to be the culprit when the whodijingle goes boing instead of sproing. Makes it easier on the pit crew to get a good idea of where to look for the problem while the drive team goes to strategize for their next match, plus if it's really major the drive team can do the easy stuff while everybody else puts the magic smoke back in.

[AustinSchuh]

Originally Posted by EricH

The exception is eliminations. At that point, if the drivers don't know how to fix some of the robot, even the extra pit crew probably won't help...

This is a bit off the original topic, but seems to fit what we are discussing now.

I like to use the analogy that the driver is like a test pilot. It's the driver's job to drive, but it's also his job to report accurately what he experienced so that the problem can be found and fixed. If the only thing that the pit crew gets back from the drive team is that the robot didn't work, they won't be able to do much about it, whereas if the driver tells them that when he did x, the bot did y, and only when z was happening as well, then that's a lot easier to work with.

[Tarzan19]

The Team Captain, or "President" on our team, has generally been the driver of the robot, at least for the years that i have been involved.
There are a few reasons for this, and it's not because we gave it to them.
1. our team was so small, as to where, the driver needed to be as experienced with the robot as possible.
2. the President has spent the most amount of time with and around the robot.

as for the roles of our President, the main goal is to be the "Face" of the team. Just to basically represent the team at all times, which also includes running meetings, giving presentations to prospective sponsors, etc.

one thing i would like to note, is that we always have our lead programmer on the drive team, not just to run the drive station, but they also usually have the best understanding of how to fix it if there is a code error with the field or robot.

[Mark McLeod]

Originally Posted by thefro526

Being a Driver and Scouting actually seem to go pretty well together. Having first hand knowledge (not filtered through a scouting system) of your allies and opponents can be the difference between winning and losing a match.

I always tell our Drive Team to watch as many matches as possible when we're at events with the hope that they'll gain some sort of insight into the competition.

For regular Regionals I can see this, but how did this work out for you at Championship last year?
With all the walking back and forth it's really hard to see more than a fraction of the other matches, and some teams you never get to see play.
Our driver team gives Scouting input like which teams are easy to work with, which are demanding, uncooperative, and difficult, who has the coolest phone apps...

I both like and dislike the idea of having a programmer on the driver team. In one way it's great for them to see and correct problems, in another it's hard for them to have time to enact actual changes while they aren't busy with drive team duties, or being on queue. My preference is for a drive team programmer to direct another programmer in making changes, so they can be ready to test when the drive team returns from a match.

[kinghashbrown]

our team captain hasn't been promised a drive team place, how ever having said that. for the three years I've been on the team our team captain has been on drive team. not because he's team captain but because he was the best choice for the job. ether because he was good at working with other teams and stratgy, or drove the robot best.

this year we have not one, not two, but three team captains who share the responsibilities of captain.the responsibilities are running meetings, attend team functions, speaks for the team when a rep is needed for things such as a tv show (our team has been one two), be a respectable role model for other team members (if people are doing something foolish done be part of it), and somewhat keeping order during meetings.

we form our drive team rather late for the most part, its rare that we get a robot done in time for much hands on with the robot. our head mentor handles drive team selection, based on who's had the most experince driving and who works well together. There are no hard feeling among team members, and it avoids self proclaimed drivers this way.

[Emiller8]

Many of our team captains are not drivers. Team captains should not just be given any place they want on the drive train. Not that team captains should not be on the drive team, but the fact that they are a captains should not influence whether they are on the drive team or not. That process does not create the best drive team that you could have every time. The drivers should be decided on by one fact: who on the team is the best driver. This person does need to be dedicated, and active on the team.

Our team captain functions first and for most, as a leader ( I know that's obvious.) They run team meetings, are in charge of communication between our sub-team leaders. Their job on a general level is to organize and run the team so that we can produce a robot that plays the game well, and that all the students get as much out of the program as possible.

[Siri]

Is your team captain guaranteed a drive team position each year?
Nope, no one is (though returning drivers rarely face much opposition). That said, for the past five years every main captain and all but one of the co-captains has been on the drive team, and all but one on the main crew. And in all but one of those cases, they were on the drive team first.

What are the responsibilities and roles of your team's team captain?
In my day this wasn't particularly thoroughly documented, but it came down to essentially anything that needed to be done that a student was allowed to do. My years a lot of it was administration (we'd just lost our founding mentor), coordination, meeting managing, being the "face" of the team, etc.

How do you form your drive team each year?
Historically, this has been mostly about dedication. (Earlier in the literal, "you're still here at 1AM on crate day, take 10 minutes of driving practice and I'll see you at the first regional" way.) We had a rather small team for a while in there, and drivers tended to self-select.

Drivers can be anyone for us: captains, mechanical, programmers, pit crew. We've had a few on the second team who were primarily scouts. I was a 3 year driver, 2 year captain, 3 year pit crew, 1 year pit captain, and a good chunk of our scouting/strategy, all of which overlapped. It could be hard to get everything done--most of our drive team tends to be pit crew--but there were some benefits. Really knowing the scouting info was good, and I know a few cases at least where last minute jerry-rigs literally won us the match. This was largely a product of our team size, though. As we grow, we're trying make it more structured and dedicate more person-hours to different tasks (hopefully not all from the same person).

[Conor Ryan]

In my time in FRC (this is my 8th year of involvement), the best team captains on any team should have one assigned job. Make sure everyone else on the team is busy at all times. Other than that they should delegate everything they do. But here are some other thoughts on qualifications great team captains should have:
-ability to delegate
-ability to come up with ideas and jobs for others to do (anybody ever look about how many people sit around and become disengaged?)
-ability to make quick decisions
-ability to motivate
-a work ethic to model after
-an idea of what FIRST is all about (heres a hint, its not all about the robot)
-no interest in actually building the robot (there are so many other things for a captain to do, they'll have no time for the actual robot, unless your team is smaller than 8 people (in which case you might want to try Vex).
-the idea of what a deadline is
-social skills to talk to judges/other teams/VIPs
-ability to say screw it, nothing is ever perfect and relax at the end of the day

Being on the drive team, being the person who gets to pick the final design, all of those *perks* are not in the best interest of the team. The best leaders let those who are the best at what they do, do what they do (and then give them credit for it).

Also on a note, being a senior/oldest member on the team/most experienced should have nothing to do with being team captain. Rookie teams have team captains any 9 times out of 10, nobody has any experience. Actually, some of the best team captains I've seen have been from rookie teams.

[Kims Robot]

On 1511 the roles have been entirely separate. The team captain is chosen from the Student Leadership team which is elected during the summer (offseason). The Drivers and Pit Crew are chosen during build season, and all students are eligible. We do make the restriction that a Main Driver CANNOT be on the pit crew (backup driveteam can be part of pitcrew). Our Driveteam is 4 members, plus a strategy & scouting lead. Our pit crew is 6 members (2 electrical, 2 mechanical, 2 programming).

Funny thing is that initially I thought "how silly, why would the team captain be guaranteed a spot on the drive team?" But then I looked back at 1511's history, and only 2/6 years were the team captains not on the drive team. In fact last year, the team picked co-captains, and both ended up as drivers. So I guess history shows it might not necessarily be so off.

That said, I think its important to make the distinction because they can be completely different roles. Your team captain should be a good leader, they should be inspirational, they should know how to get things done and how to get others to get things done. I think back to one of the two captains that wasn't on drive team. He was a GREAT leader... not so great driver... EXCELLENT chairman's presenter - in fact he won us our first CA... but he wasn't ready for the drive team.

Ultimately, I guess it all falls into how you define your roles and what the specific responsibilities of the Team Captain are. I think its possible for the roles to overlap, but its certainly not required.

In the end, do what works for your team, but its ok to consider the roles entirely separately. Generally our drivers are more experienced with the team, but we don't require it, its skill & dedication that matter the most.

[thefro526]

Originally Posted by EricH

The exception is eliminations. At that point, if the drivers don't know how to fix some of the robot, even the extra pit crew probably won't help...

This is true. I agree that the Drivers should be able to do basic repairs to the robot as well as be able to provide accurate feedback to the Pit Crew and Programmers. I just prefer not to have my Drivers fix the Robot at Competitions unless it's absolutely Necessary. (We've been lucky enough to have an Ace Pit Crew the last few years so the Driver's rarely worry about the robot, but I could see where some teams may need their Drive team to play double duty.)

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

For regular Regionals I can see this, but how did this work out for you at Championship last year?
With all the walking back and forth it's really hard to see more than a fraction of the other matches, and some teams you never get to see play.
Our driver team gives Scouting input like which teams are easy to work with, which are demanding, uncooperative, and difficult, who has the coolest phone apps...

To be honest, I don't know how many Championship Matches my Drive Team saw last year because I rarely left the pits but I know they did. I know when we walked out to the dome we would often watch a match or two before ours, but I don't know if they ever got the chance to actually sit in the stands and watch matches. I am a fan of Drivers giving feedback to scouts about how well we worked with teams, I think we may have to do more of that this year.

[Katie_UPS]

Originally Posted by thefro526

To be honest, I don't know how many Championship Matches my Drive Team saw last year because I rarely left the pits but I know they did. I know when we walked out to the dome we would often watch a match or two before ours, but I don't know if they ever got the chance to actually sit in the stands and watch matches. I am a fan of Drivers giving feedback to scouts about how well we worked with teams, I think we may have to do more of that this year.

<side note>
I was on drive team when our team went to championships in 2009. I don't remember finding enough time to eat lunch, none-the-less sit and watch matches.
</side note>

In reference to the captains/drive team issue, and I'm fairly certain its been said already:
Drivers should be picked solely on who can control the robot (and under pressure). They should, especially, not be based on who was on the team the longest. One our old mentors (old as in not on the team anymore) would even argue that contribution to the team shouldn't even be a factor (but I have mixed feelings on that). I do agree to some extent that the position of "driver" should not be a reward*.

Captains should be picked based on who does the job best: This can also be anyone. Our mentors claim that the best captain we ever had was a senior on the rookie-year team. Another year with good captainship had a co-captain who was a sophmore. Age doesn't really matter, as long as they are organized and can lead well.

Just my opinions.

*If you're going to competition to win, then this would be my mentality. If winning competition is not a goal (or a priority), then drive team would/could be handled differently.-

[JaneYoung]

Stepping away from the word, Captain, as a team leader - it is interesting to see what options/opportunities open up to think about and explore when one uses the word, Project Manager, instead.

Jane

[Conor Ryan]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

Stepping away from the word, Captain, as a team leader - it is interesting to see what options/opportunities open up to think about and explore when one uses the word, Project Manager, instead.

Jane

Building off that, if you follow the simple rule of "Pointy Things are Bad", and you apply it to your team structure, it works wonders. Having a Grand Puba at the top of an organizational structure is:

1) Not efficient
2) Not fair to everyone else on the team that puts in a similar amount of work
3) There is also a lack of accountability to make sure they do their assigned job.

Create a checks and balances system that makes it a fairer, happier and more productive workplace.

Just remember, rookie teams have some of the best captains, and typically nobody on those teams have any experience.

[Bryan Herbst]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

Stepping away from the word, Captain, as a team leader - it is interesting to see what options/opportunities open up to think about and explore when one uses the word, Project Manager, instead.

Jane

This is an interesting concept and also one that our team tried last year.
We had three seniors who were all put in leadership positions: one was the technical sub-team leader, one the mechanical sub-team leader.

The last person who was referred to colloquially as the captain was put into a new sub-team consisting of himself and the lead mentor known as the "systems engineering" subteam.

The purpose of the systems engineering subteam was to ensure that each of the other subteams was communicating effectively, ensure that everyone had something to do, etc. This is very similar to the role of systems engineers at major corporations.


In answer to the original question:
Our team has never guaranteed our captain a role on the drive team. We select from our entire team those most capable of driving the robot efficiently and making strategic decisions. Due to the nature of the student leader's role on the team and the youthful composition of our team in past years, he/she has historically always been on the drive team though.