little short on members

[Tri_Lam]

heres the deal engineering club is highly short of members there are literally 3 or 4 of us actully coming after school and saturdays to work on it. anytips on getting a little more members or more hype to get people to join?

[EStokely]

Assuming you had more than that at the kick off find them and ask them what they think the robot should do...give wild ideas on what you are planning, watch thier eyes get big as they realize you're crazy. Say to them "Well if you have a better idea..."



As to how to attract more members, nothing attracts better than a moving robot. Put the KOP base together and drive it around at lunch, have a computer with the animation of the game playing in a QT loop so people can see what you are trying to do this year

Play last years matches at lunch, at meetings, get a display at school with pictures of what you are trying to do (again last years game shots will work)

If all else fails tell potential members that they will get 2 days off of school if they contribute to the team.

I think I have done all of these at various times since I have been working with teams. A moving machine is the best advertising.

Good Luck

[Gabe]

You have to show yourselves to the public. If you have a project that you built then take it all over school for a day, or present it before, after, during lunch. Show off!!!

[TravisE]

If your school has anoucements then a good idea is to put a montage of some of the olders seasons and play either Sandstorm or popcorn thats what we have done and it just works for us try to focus on your chess club to there are alot of nerds in there and your AV club if you got one that is how i found out about first is through my Av club at school

[Justin M.]

We have a daily bulletinat our school, so we've been running announcements in there since September. We also did BEST this year so the freshmen would have something to do. Both of our mentors also make announcements in their classes, and offer extra credit to committed members...

[Bochek]

dont feel alown in that boat.

team 2200 has 13 "members" and there are about 5-7 of us that actually are dedicated.

But we pull though, our chassis is done and our manipulator should be done by the end of this week.

The entire robot has been built and designed by students. All our "mentors" do is supervise us while marking some tests or sending some emails. They also deal with all the ordering of parts and money.

Currently i am putting in approx 6 hours per day. and 12 hours/day on weekends.

I am the most active member but others are close behind.

- Bochek

[Otaku]

Honestly, I don't see that big of a problem with having a few engineers that work a lot. As that one dude said in the kickoff video, you will be losing sleep, and quite possibly sanity, over this. That's how it is.

That being said, I've been working on engineering (only basic stuff, chassis layout) and building ($@#$@#$@#$@# near everything, chassis, prototypes, anything we needed really) all but 1 day out of the build season so far. That one day, I was sick (Actually, I still am, I was gone Tuesday when it was the worst) to the point where I was coughing, couldn't breath through my nose, and lost my voice almost completely (and am only beginning to get it back thursday night).

However, maybe I'm wrong. Perhaps having a few people work a great amount isn't optimal (I would imagine it's not, however that's all 675 has really). But then agian, what do I know.

Whatever gets the job done, I geuss.

[Dillon Compton]

Make sure people know there is more to first that the robot... Get cheerleaders, spirit squads etc... to organize a spirit team. Get student government, the debate club, people who are good at organizing and talking and making things happen to work on getting sponsors, getting awards submissions together, etc... Get the community service club to work with robotics to sponsor a day of service centered on technology to help get word into the community. Get the Audio/Visual people and techies from the theater department to do video and photo and website production, and get the shop classes involved in the build.

There is so much more to do than build a robot, so make sure people know this!

[santosh]

If possible, get friends to come. Even if they don't seem like they would be very interested, just ask tehm to coem try it out. Put up morning announcements, talk to engineering classes if you have any. If you would like more help, pm me.
Thanks and good luck.