Team handbook

[Gamer930]

Team 930 will like to put together a team handbook.
Does anyone have one they would like to share so we kind of have a reference??
Is it possibly posted on a website or in a file that I could download and print out??

E-mail to M3wmaster@hotmail.com

Thanks from team 930

P.S. Anything will help as of now. Even if it is an outline of team organization!!

[Brandon Martus]

Search and you will find: this thread, among others.

[Austin]

http://www.technokats.org/resources.htm ...click on "Handbook.doc"

[srjjs]

We are considering having a team handbook for next year's season as well, and much of our team thinks its a bad idea.

I think there's no real need for something like a team handbook; it'd just add an unneccessary level of complexity to team operation.

[DanLevin247]

My advice, and in my opinion.... it's good, important and necessary to have a set of ground rules and understandings that everyone must understand and abide by, but the amount of time it can take to pull together a detailed handbook can wind up being a big chuck of your'e season.

[srjjs]

That's why you'd do it in the off-season, of course.
Anything you want your members to know seems like it doesn't need a handbook to say. Either it's common sense, they'll remeber it anyways, or you have some rather arcane rules.

[rbayer]

From someone who's been in charge of large group before (not robotics related, but the principles are the same), it's always good to have some kind of hard copy evidence to back you up. If nothing else, it's a good way to cover yourself when somebody (or their parent) disagrees with a decision you made.

Think about it: each time you start a new class, the teacher gives you a handout explaining all the rules, grading procedures, etc. You think they enjoy wasting their time putting together handouts of what should be obvious stuff? No, but they also want to have something to back them up with some parent comes yelling that their precious baby didn't get an A. Same thing with robotics: it's good to have a formal procedures to fall back on when it comes time to pick a travel team, etc.

[Andy Baker]

Originally posted by srjjs
We are considering having a team handbook for next year's season as well, and much of our team thinks its a bad idea.

I think there's no real need for something like a team handbook; it'd just add an unneccessary level of complexity to team operation.

I disagree. If you want any sort of longevity to you team, then the team should be organized. A team handbook is a good way to do this.

Many teams have handbooks... it is a good thing.

Now... what you put in your handbook is definitely up to the team. Some teams would crumble if they had too much organization, some teams would crumble without it... but you gotta have some sort of structure to be in FIRST for more than a couple of years.

Andy B.

[srjjs]

Excessive organization stifles independent thought. It just feels too much like school. For us, robotics is about having fun and enjoying ourselves.

When there's some sort of disagreement, we try to work it out together to find a solution that works well instead of falling back on "whatever we used last time." Robotics has plenty of compromises involved, and in this case it's flexibility versus efficiency.