Team Communication Tools

[Seth Mallory]

Originally Posted by spacepenguine

I really like the dinner idea though. How does this work? Our team usually works in 2 places miles apart, so we get quite a divide of groups (animation, chairman's/flower's, build). Do you have one consolidated dinner after everything is done for the evening?

Our team works in one place so that helps. The way it works is the team has paper plates and things so the family's just bring food and drink. The drinks are mostly juice with milk some times. The leftovers are left in the old refrigerator for after school and late night snacks. Dinner includes salad or veggie trays and some type of dessert like cookies, brownies, or other things. I wish I could take credit for this but it has been going on for 15 years. I have an old gas grill that I am giving to the team next week as some people like to grill for the team. The last two years I have made grilled cheese for 40-50 people and the kids love the smell of food cooking. The team has a very diverse range of cultures and this helps to further our students understanding of others.

[ericzundel]

Another Google tool that is underutilized is Google Sites. You can sign up for a free site at http://sites.google.com/. It works kind of like a free website and kind of like a Wiki, but the editor is WYSIWYG. Here's the one I set up for team 1795 communication.

[Billfred]

Los Pollos Locos uses Google Groups almost exclusively. It's a good way to keep an email list going.

[Joe Ross]

When our team started, we used an email group. Not everyone had email, so it was a team requirement to get an email address and check it daily. After a few years, email and internet became more prevalent and the checking email daily was no longer an issue. Now, internet is more prevalent then ever, but students are using email less, making the check email daily requirement more important.

Unfortunately, it's hard to have a technical discussion over twitter.

[SammyKay]

In September, we compile a list of everyone's phone numbers and email addresses to give to everyone. We primarily use email to communicate, as well as phone sometimes. When something big is coming up, I will send out text messages to all the students to remind them of the event. We also have a calender that gets emailed to us for the fall season and we get the Build Season calender at our holiday party in December. We just recently created a facebook for the team, which we use as a reminder for meetings and fundraiser deadlines for both the FRC team as well as the two FLL teams we mentor.