Incorporating Less Frequently Available Team Members

[annie1939]

This is the problem I deal with at my school. It can be frustrating. However, out of 200 high school students in the school we have 25 on the team. That's 12.5% of the school. And we don't have a tech type hands on class. AP physics is as close as they get to hands on technology. We do it by being very flexible.

We require at least 30 hours of work during build season to attend a regional.(pretty minimal, but enough toget them to understand FIRST and the game). My goal is to get them hooked. I want them back the next year as opposed to burned out forever. Once we get them hooked, they give more time. I get the kids to sign up for planned times. We will put up a calender and they mark the days that they can attend. That helps us plan.
If they can't make it on the day they planned, they need be responsible and let us know. I also try to let peer pressure take its toll. Everyone writes in their hours worked on a public calendar on the door. If they are putting in too little work, the other kids will let them know about it.
And fewer hours mean that their opinions or desires don't carry as much weight. Kind of a natural consequence of their decision.

Drop ins do more of the button making etc. One of the jobs we have is writing a blog called "Daily Delphi". He summarizes the most active discussions on Chief Delphi and looks for info and tips on build, programming and strategy. He may not get in as often, but he usually has a better "big" picture view of things than the kid who is in there every day. You could actually put a couple of kids on this. Other kids can plan the scouting work. Websites can be worked on at home as well as posters etc. We are lucky to have a laptop program where everyone is supplied with the complete Adobe Suite so they can work at home. We want them there even if it is only for an hour per day. Have those kids act as journalist and interview the builders and engineers about the robot. Then they can write up a flier to be passed out the regional. Have a blogger. They can come and talk to the builders and find out what has been going on. Think of all the other aspects to a business. Could they run a publicity campaign at the school about the team? Handle the budget? Seek more funding? Those activities can add an extra dimension to your program. If they are standing around we grab them up as extra hands. Hold this, put this there, go find that, research this.

Obviously it would be nice to have 20 completely dedicated members whose only activity was Robotics, but our small school population couldn't support it. We would probably win more, but my goal is for them to end up in the top 50-25%. We have done very well so far. Usually we end up in the being picked for the final rounds and last year we came out 2nd in Oklahoma and won the Motorola Quality Award. We won Engineering Inspiration a few years ago.

I think getting more kids into STEM careers is important, but I also think that creating people who support STEM is almost more important. Face it, many people don't have the aptitude for engineering. However, we are also educating the future politicians, CEO's and journalists that might be making decisions or writing about science and technology. I try to lure them into contact with the team. Everyone may not be putting in 200 hours, but if I can leave them with the idea that engineers and scientists are fun, creative and interesting as opposed to thinking of us as some sort of weird clueless alien race I will have improved the world.

[Bethie42]

We have loads of these non-available people and for the most part we really love them.
Drama takes a lot of people at our school and there is always a show that is being rehearsed for during the build.

For several years I didn't come to many meetings: usually I had drama or some other large commitment. However I was able to scout at regionals [was the only scout for several years]. Last year I was a lot more involved and actually learned how to do some mechanical stuff. I also took care of Chairman's, both the essay and video. This year I've totally cleared out my schedule to allow for robotics and I'm doing all the odd jobs like organization, PR, fundraising, as well as being lead programmer [through necessity]. So yes, over-scheduled kids can later go on to be really dedicated to robotics.

I'd say Chairman's Award is a good project for kids who really want to be involved, but can't make it to all the meetings.

Scouting is also a good job [depends on the student, I'd put the outgoing enthused kids on scouting...] but make sure they know a lot about the final design of your robot, and are very familiar with the game. My first year I was recruited to be the [one and only] scout, right at the end of build, and I was a bit nonplussed when I got to competition and people were asking me what sort of drive-train our robot had and I really didn't know....heh.

Last year we had a senior girl on the team who was barely ever able to come to meetings, but she wound up being a huge help to us: helped me with Chairman's and scouted with me at competition. I had a far more enjoyable and relaxed experience at competition knowing I wasn't the only one doing it. The best way she was able to help was just in the last few days of the season.

It would be really helpful if there is one student or mentor on the team who attends all the meetings and can send out email updates after important meetings, recapping what was accomplished/what needs to happen and so on.

It really depends on the student though, do they really want to be involved with the team: if they do, they'll often want to help any way they can and will be a huge benefit to you.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

My mentality is that if they don't want to participate, its their loss. If they don't like the program they would show up everyday. You can't force anyone to like the program. If it is a legitimate excuse like sports or religious activities or something along those lines, go with Eric's advice. Honestly if they don't want to be there, just straight up tell them to not show up at all. I would believe that they are wasting their time going to the meetings. Time is precious; it should never be wasted. Being able to participate in such programs is a privilege not a right.

Sometimes it isn't a question of wanting to be there but a question of being able to get there. I don't know what the economic situation for your team is but around me we have parents who can't afford the gas to get their students to the meetings but once or twice a week. Should I take that out on the students?

The only thing we ask our students is to show up when they say they will, if that is "I can only be here Monday from 4-5" then that is when they are there. Interestingly, this is the same philosophy we use for mentors.

Make sure your consistent students are all up to speed on what is going on and have them work with the less consistent students. Perhaps consider a weekly newsletter (resources permitting) that can be sent to mentors/students/sponsors via the magic of the internets.

[Chris Hibner]

Ken Patton could provide a great response to this. I hope he chimes in.

There were a handful of years on team 65 when I could only show up one or two days a week due to my job at the time and the fact that I was literally hundreds of miles away for days (or sometime weeks) on end. He did a good job of keeping me involved and having me participate in whatever way I could.

Many of these people can provide great insight. We had someone on our team last year that could only show up one day per week. He was valuable in many ways. One big way is that he could provide a grounded opinion on things that we were maybe too involved to see.

It's kind of like the job of a good producer for a great band recording an album. My favorite band of all time is one of the most legendary bands in all of music. They have about 20 studio albums, all of which sold millions of copies. They could have self-produced their own albums for years now if they wanted to, but they refuse to do it. They feel that they can get too attached to their own ideas that they can't tell if it's good or a hair-brained idea. Therefore, they always hire a producer that's not afraid to share a real opinion.

Sometimes these people that can't devote a lot of time are great as "producers" - they can armchair quarterback the ideas and provide some great feedback that the people that are real close to the idea can't quite see for themselves.

Anyway, usually any help is good help. Be open and take what they can give you.

[Darbus]

Thank you all very much for your input. Our issue comes from students who have other commitments, not those who aren't motivated to participate. We also have the problem of show rehearsals running concurrently with build season. We're trying to set up a system so that to-be-completed tasks can be put up on a place such as the forums of the team website, so students can post about their progress on their tasks, see what there is to do, and get a sense of what's been going on if they haven't been to meetings in a bit. Does anyone have any recommendations for the format of such a system?