Team Bonding

[c-squared_2006]

Need help with team bonding...Okay, I'm noticing on my team that some newbies are getting left out and the returning members tend to clump, it seems that they want to keep to themselves. I did talk to them. I tried multiple speeches. But nothing is working. I can actually pinpoint it to one person, but I don't want to be confrontational to them. The person, who is a very valuable part on the team, assembles a small group around them and ignores most of the newbies and that get me really upset as the student leaders. How to approach this situation?

I did try game nights and similar things, our school is not allowing a lockin (we have both genders on the team). The problem still persists.

[EricH]

Tell the mentors. They could talk to this person without you getting (publicly) invoved. Also, take it on yourself to reach out to the rookies.

[Mike]

I would assign tasks, purposefully mixing up the experienced/newbies. Or, have a kinda big brother/big sister program. Assign an experienced student to help teach a new person.

[Lisa Perez]

If you're doing a discussion and they're sitting off to the side, definitely ask them, "So, what's your opinion on such-and-such?" Most of the time, the new students are somewhat scared to respond initially - but when they see that their opinion actually has a difference and that the team is willing to help them out, they'll start to get more involved as time goes on, and the veterans will learn to become more accepting.

[Koko Ed]

Such things are usually best handled in a pre season (as I'm sure you guys are quite busy).Some recommedations of things we do:
*Do a scavenger hunt with a clue that no one else on the team knows about each and every memeber and the other stufdents have to go around gathering information.
*Practice team cheers. The andrenline will get the kids fired up for the meeting and make them more involved.
*I also found this online. You may be able to get some good ideas from this page as well.

[Andrew Blair]

Well, we don't do a real good job of this either, but what works for us is to literally walk over to someone who is unsure about what to do, and take them to help you with something. As soon as they become more competant, they'll fit in fine.

[prettyyinpinkk9]

What we did this year was during brainstorming, we paired up completely opposite people to throw out their ideas...it has definitely worked so far, in that we all seem more like a family whereas earlier in the year we were experiencing the "clicks"...I would also recommend some other type of team outing, maybe a movie night or picnic karaoke...when placed in humorous situations, everyone seems to come together

[nehalita]

I think, maybe, you need to sit down with the team and ask the rookies how they feel. Maybe if the rookies speak for themselves, it will click that they are not getting their fair share of attention. Or maybe you can approach a few of your friends individually and have them make sure the rookies are included. That way, you aren't necessarily being confrontational with that one person but you are working around it.

Tell us how it goes

[c-squared_2006]

Thank You for all the suggestions, I think I can take it from here and see how it works.