Our rookie team currently has 8 freshman and sophmore boys. We’re not affliated with a school. At this point in the preseason we’re hoping to add some members (especially some girls), but would really appreciate your advise.
What is the minimum and ideal size for a rookie team?
Do students typically concentrate in one particular area (i.e. construction, programming, web site, annimation, marketing)?
No two FIRST teams are every really the same so there is no ideal size for a team. All that really matters is that they are motivated too put in the hours and make the proper sacrifices for the program (FIRST is very time consuming so make sure to let the new members know that upfront. Not everyone is willing or able to give that much time to the program)I remember a few years ago one team consisted of one ambitions student at Buckeye.
Minimum size: You probably don’t want to lose any members, but a typical “skeleton crew” for competition is 4 (3 students, 1 mentor).
Ideal size: If everyone is doing something and doesn’t have too many things, you’re at ideal size. If you have more people, make more things to do to make sure you’re at ideal size.
Concentration: Depends on the team. You can do it that way, or have everyone doing everything. You make that call.
Suggestion: Make sure that you also recruit mentors. Parents might be a good place to start; see if they know people who’d be willing to help out.
Suggestion 2: Have a team handbook.
Suggestion 3: Talk to teams 341 and 365 about their rookie resources.
It’s good to wander around in the world of informed (and sometimes, not so informed) opinions. It is also good to explore resources. One is the FIRST website. This is a link that will help you. There are other resources such as the NEMO website.
Have a great and fun year!
Jane
I think size is pretty irrelevant, however student to mentor ratio is. In an ideal world, I would like to see a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio (mentor to student), but I think the 1:4 on my old team was sufficient. As long as your students are motivated and have someone to help guide them along the path to success, you should be good.
I have expreianced many problem with my team as a rookie team:
to the competition: 8 members max/min
2 drivers
1 human player
1 coach
1 battery man (charging the batteries)
1 member that is incharged on the electrinics
1 member that is incharged on the mechanical
1 member that is incharged on the robot program
to the build season: 5-6 members is enough
But…
there is a low precent of members that are active members. not every member will be active as the team need. when the team is small the efforts are bigger.
our team was at first 25 members, at the competition we were 16 but 8 were active, the other passive.
It’s a big problem in our team that we are still in it, you have to consider it that if your team is too small you can’t run it
Size, as stated below doesn’t really matter. As you begin to grow, and get accustomed to FIRST you’ll have more things to do. For example, in the beginning of the year our team has over 100 students. But by build season, we tend to get around 35 dedicated members. Our team keeps growing every year, because once you have have a strong base you can extend further out. If you can get associated with a high school, the number of students will jump also it might be easier to get funding for your team. But if you can’t, try to do some advertising in your area to get new members. Due to our large numbers, we have sub-teams and students are usually working in their individual sub-teams. But if you are going to follow this model, make sure that everyone is generally educated on everything or else it creates a lot of friction and confusion during build season.
If you need any help, our team would love to help. You can contact Team 1403 at [email protected]
In looking at this from a logistical standpoint, 8-10 students will allow there to be enough students on any given night to make it worth having mentors, materials, tools, etc. assembled in the same room. Can you build a robot with that few, and the answer will be a firm yes, provided you want to spend a great deal of time each week of the build. If you want to have some people working on software solutions, or some working on prototyping while others are building then you will need to add to your list. If you want to do some scouting and strategy then add a few more. If you want to meet with judges at an event then you will need some dedicated students in the pit that can talk.
A nice number gets you to about 20-25. This will allow you to build the robot, practice, do some software, do some strategy and do some fundraising for the future. We see small teams (12 or less) every year that do OK but there is a lot of stress for both students and mentors.
The minimum size is simply the least number of people it takes to build, wire, program, and drive your robot… And that depends a lot on the dedication of the members and the time you put into it.
As for the maximum size of a rookie team… There is no maximum. the more people you have, the more you can do. Remember, these teams aren’t just about robots - you have fund-raising, scouting, PR, community involvement. A lot of rookie teams end up ignoring most of these just so they can get a robot on the field. if you have too many people to have everyone work on the robot, you can pick up these items that rookie teams often neglect.
From personal work experience, I can tell you that the size of the team drastically affects how its organized. When you have a small team, everyone tends to pitch in and help where its needed. You can’t afford to overly specialize (programming vs electrical vs mechanical). If a few students can’t make it one night, it may be more important for your programmer to help out on mechanical to get things done.
On the flip side, a large team requires a lot more organization. Typically, you’ll find people specializing a lot more. You might have a schedule of who shows up when so you don’t have too many people trying to work on the robot at once.
For a rookie team, I think 6-10 students and at least 3 motiviated mentors would be ideal. The student/mentor ratio should be low. With your inexperience, you will spend a disproportionate amount of your time trying to figure out basic stuff, and less time actually cutting chips and assembling hardware. It is very difficult for a large, inexperienced, impatient, group to create order from chaos. By your second year you will be in a much better position to take on larger numbers. I also recommend that you limit the scope of your non-robot activities (marketing, fancy pit setup, buttons, award submissions, etc.) until you have a handle on the basics (putting a robot on the field) and enough experienced leadership (student or adult) to take on those projects.
I wish we could spotlight this whole post. It is very wise.
Jane