Who should be the Captain??

[EricH]

Depends on what "captain" you need. There are three or four that have been brought up:
--Team captain for build season. At this point, you want an organizer who is respected. His/her job is to make sure the robot gets built on time and to plan.

--Picking representative. Wait on this until much later. You want a "people person" who can take a list and narrow it quickly. Must know something of what your scouts have come up with at an event; may actually be the head scout.

--Drive coach. Required for this: Good strategy skills and a loud enough voice to be heard over the competition at close range. Wait until the end of build season to choose.

--Sub-team captains. Must be the best or close to it in that field that is available. Mentors ideal for the first year, if available; after that, students.

For the record, I don't think that there is a requirement to have a team captain. You do need a student rep to sign off on the inspection and to pick teams. (These are often a team captain, so that can be taken into consideration.)

It sounds like you are looking for a leader. My advice here is, let mentors lead for now. A student leader will eventually show up. People don't lead because they are chosen to lead; they are chosen to lead because they lead. Someone will demonstrate leadership; they should be the captain or leader.

[catsylve]

Last year was our rookie year, so I don't have a lot of experience with captain selection, but I do have experience with working with students. We have a large school that participates also in FTC. This year we took five teams to the competition, with five different captains. From watching the students during FTC build and competition, this gives me an idea how the students will behave as captain during FRC. This way I can not only select an overall team captain, but also leaders for the subdivisions. I do only choose a senior for the position, because they are the ones going on to college and in need of scholarships. It worked well last year and has been a good system so far for this year.

[JaneYoung]

This is an excellent thread regarding project management.
I esp. like Michael Sperber's post #13.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=60080

Also, if you use the search option and search for leadership - you should find several threads regarding your topic and/or relating to it.

Understanding and implementing good leadership attributes/qualities is something that is very important in the development of the individual and the team in FIRST. Some naturally have the ability to lead and some step up and meet its challenge when given or presented the opportunity.

[Richard Wallace]

Add my recommendation to Jane's: the whole thread she linked above is good reading, and Michael Sperber's post is especially good.

To paraphrase Shakespeare's Malvolio (Twelfth Night, Act II Scene 5): Be not afraid of leadership: some are born leaders, some achieve leadership, and some have leadership thrust upon 'em.

[Richard McClellan]

I agree, that's a great point. I don't remember exactly where I heard this statistic, but 90% of all problems that arise in the real world are due to breakdowns in communication.