Renovating a Team

Competition Team Organization
1

Hey guys!

Our team (75) is looking into creating a business plan of sorts for next year and beyond. Our team has been just sort of chugging along without any real direction each year. We want our team to have a vision. I’ve been reading through a lot of the student handbooks that other teams use (such as Chief Delphi’s) in the white papers section. We want to create something of a similar fashion. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on what to include/what not to include, etc.

We’re trying to change our team ‘image’ as well. Part of our problem was that we never had one or two people who have been there for the team since it’s inception. For the past three years, we’ve had our sponsor’s main contact change several times, and we seem to get new teachers running the club each year as well. Combine this with the fact that we have new student team leaders each year, and you see what I mean by having so many changes so often.

Hopefully, all of that’s done with. I think we have a group of really dedicated team members, teachers, and sponsors now. Luckily, the majority of the team (95%) next year will be sophomores and juniors. So we’re going to have basically the same team for two years in a row. This will allow us enough time to create our team vision and start setting up a self-sustaining team.

I bet most of you know our team’s history better than our current team does. This is due the problem I cited earlier about the constant changes. We don’t really know of any prejudices against us, but we’re trying to change to our team ‘image’ anyway. We want to be a spirited, more student-involved team. Our first simple step we’re taking is by simply modifying our logo slightly. Right now, our team colors are red, white, and black… which are kind of bland. We’re going to add gold so we have some more color. Here’s a mockup of what it might look like:

http://www.av11d.com/etc/newLogoWebSafe.jpg

It’s a more colorful, spirited logo.

We’re also getting more involved in our community. Currently, we run a Girl Scout day were we help Girl Scouts get science badges. We’re generating more ideas now and might be starting summer camps about robotics and engineering. We’re also going to try and get our local cable company to provide NASA TV in our town, so that our town can watch the FIRST championships once a year. This is hopefully only the beginning.

So, I was just wondering if other teams had handbooks? Do you guys think it’s a good idea to cut people from the team or maybe have interviews in the beginning of the year? Along these lines, does anyone have any general ideas on how to get our team back on our feet beyond what I’ve mentioned we’re already looking into?

Thanks for any feedback/suggestions you have!!

2

Well hey now, this sounds familiar.

We’re also in the process of “giving our team CPR” (phrase stolen from Kristi). Here are some things we’re looking into:

Primary Goal:

  1. Actually having a team. Things aren’t looking so good at the moment. Anyone with experience/advice about finding faculty support is welcome to share. =)

Secondary Goals:

  1. Website redsign. This really depends on if you need it. (We need it).
  2. Pit redesign. We’re looking to create tables/cabinets/chests/something or other to hold our tools and supplies that’s maybe a little easier to handle than the multitude of boxes we drag around. The upside of something like this is that we’d be able to paint and decorate it according to team colors and logo. (We’re also working with idea of making some team posters for our pit).
  3. Spirit Team! We need buttons, posters, and people whose sole responsibility is to jump up and down and scream. =)
  4. We’re looking into some kind of free item/service that we can give out next year. We’ve gotten strategy boards (195? Maybe?) and free software (564) and are looking to do something similar. (Still in the brainstorming stage here.)
  5. Knowledge base and seminars: teaching primarily ourselves about robotics. We’re having a similar problem with people moving around…lots of pretty inexperienced people will have lots of responsibility next year. But once we teach ourselves, we’re going to turn around and teach underclassmen/new members and hopefully members of our school and/or community, if we can get the idea off the ground.
  6. Video team. We’re thinking of charging someone with the responsibility of taking video and pictures on a fairly regular basis and making some kind of promotional video and/or posters, brochures, etc. (To reach sponsors, brag about our team :), and for sentimental value).

Like I said, we’re in the same process as you are, so this isn’t experienced advice. This is just a list of ideas that we’re kicking around while working on the same kind of problems that you are (team “image”). Feel free to steal our ideas. We’d just be interested in hearing how they work out, if you can spare the time to drag yourselves away from the success I’m sure will ensue to send me a PM. =)

3

Our handbook is available on our website. We hope that you will be able to use it. Feel free to change it as much as you want. One thing we found helps build team consistency and spreads knowledge among team members is getting together regularly in the summer, including those who just graduated.