I am on a rookie team with 10, or 11 member, I’m not always sure. We aproached around 10 other people but they all expressed general disinterest. When we tried to recruit them we didn’t know what the program involved. We hope to be able to recruit more people after we have a successful season, and some recruiting material, ex. working robot, grasp on what the program involves. I am dissapointed that I am a senior and would have very much loved to be involved in a program like this my freshman year.
Last year as a rookie team we had 10 members that worked very hard. Nobody quit. It was pretty much a group that knew everyone else in it, and was very motivated. This year, we started with 3 veterans and now have a team of about 15. You always have those that don’t really seem to do much, but those that are genuinely interested can do a lot more the next year.
The key is recruiting the right people. Only a few are really going to be interested in what you are doing. As soon as being a member of the robotics team becomes a “social” thing, you get the people that talk all the time and don’t show up consistently.
The “smart kids” are generally some of the best. Our team has no problem with grades. Grades are typically a reflection of motivation. If somebody is interested, and has good grades, I expect they will be a solid member of the team. Choose your team wisely. Use your core people to build the robot and fundraise, and your flaky people to do everything not as important like website, etc.
I think a team of 60, or even 40, is far too large to be managable. You just have a few people working, and the rest sitting around as already mentioned.
If you don’t want people to drop out, get the right people to start with.
Our team has 7 members. Anyone whining about having 20 should feel lucky.
We are a second year team who did pretty well at our regional last year. How do we recruit new members? Anyone have good ideas?
A problem at our school is the lack of motivation, especially when they have nothing to do. Also, robotics isn’t an official class here, so the students have no motivation to show up, and they eventually just leave.
*Originally posted by Tonay K *
**Our team has 7 members. Anyone whining about having 20 should feel lucky.We are a second year team who did pretty well at our regional last year. How do we recruit new members? Anyone have good ideas? **
The two teachers on the X-Cats ( one who is my wife ) do a FIRST recruitment drive at the beginning of the school year to get the word out to the kids about the X-Cats. We do an interview process to what kids qualify for the team. We try to get 40 kids a year and only end up losing a few due to time constraints or poor grades (if you don’t keep your grades up, help with the fundraising, put in at least two hours of extra time outside of the regularly scheduled meetings, do a community service and other mandated activities you will not be able to travel and you could be asked to leave if you truly have neglected your duties). We have a chart that marks clearly how the kids are doing and kids are given a pretty good idea where they stand.
Last year out of 40 kids only 28 could travel to Florida, many because APs were so close to the Nationals. That won’t be a problem this year it seems.
Though an application process is fine and all, I don’t personally believe in one. We have probably about 15 really dedicated members this year, with only about 3 of us being real technical. What I’ve found is a democracy, though the best way to go to NOT step on anyone’s toes, is NOT the best way to go. Fortunately for time’s sake, unfortunately for my sake, I seem to be the only student that makes executive decisions on the team. This makes things go a lot smoother overall, but it does limit the flow of good ideas a little bit. I personally think having a “chain of command” where the most dedicated students generally make final decisions, and the other team members input to them, and the junk eventually gets sorted out and things go more smoothly. Of course, one bad decision from the dedicated students may turn into a huge problem, but that is the risk we take. Last year, when I was just a space monkey, our team spent 4 weeks designing, another week and a half building and breaking our own robot, an hour to completely mess it up, and the last three days before shipping completely rebuilding the 'bot. We ended up finishing 23rd in Regionals, and had we been a little more efficient, we could have placed a LOT higher. My point is, just generally make it known around your area and in your school. That way, the interested people who have the time will get themselves involved. There is no real way to control the amount of people on the team, because it is kind of like fate. There are a certain amount of students in your school that will get involved and be a good member of the team, and that is an uncontrollable amount. The only thing you can do is make your team known in your area so you can get as many of those people involved as possible.
our team has never really had a problem with numbers of people so far as i know, except for the animation team. i am a junior, and last year was my rookie year. last year i was the only one on the animation “team” and i spent all of my time playing around with 3DSMax. i never actually submitted anything because my laptop, which was running windows ME (bad bad bad bad bad bad bad idea :yikes: ) crashed. so this year there’s at least three of us. i think the main reason that so many people left our team was because everyone came in (mostly freshmen) assuming they would be driving the robot. when they found out that there would be only 2 or 3 drivers, a handful of them quit. i suppose they were just looking for some fun without working for it. of course, the 12 people and 2 human players who want to be part of our drive team have been informed that there are four practices a week, involving setting up and tearing down the playing field every time. i suppose this was a turn-off enough to those people who just wanted a free ride. to tell youi the truth, our teacher was mad at the fact that we had 40 people at our first meeting. but freshmen will be freshmen and now we have around 30 or so, which cis good because all areas of our production have had an increase in members from last year (especially animation—yay! 
)
i think that if teams are having trouble with a lack of retention, they should be telling members even before they come to the meetings, how much work is involved. i think that videos of the team competing from the previous year (s) are a good way of showing members that, despite the work that they know they will have to be doing, it actually does result in some fun and friendly competition, even if you’re not the driver. i know i’ve screamed myself hoarse at several competitions…
good luck with recruiting next year, since it’s kinda too late this year. but know that if people quit, it’s no use trying to bring them back as they will only be counter-productive.
Thanks guys. I agree that projects designed to raise awareness are a good idea. At our first meeting this year, we had about 12 people show up. Our coach let everyone know what kind of time they’d have to put in and that turned off a lot of people (frosh mostly). Thanks for the suggestions.
I believe that FIRST is a huge time commitment. Some people don’t have the time in their lives for such an event, or some are just unwilling to give up the time. During the last season, I went from working 30 hours a week at a local grocery store to working 5 - 10 hours. I guess sometimes it just depends on availability of time in your life and how you are willing to schedule it.
Some people appreciate some time away from of this- and for some, this is their hobby, their get-away-from-it-all.
Each season we “call out” about 100. Then we do several months of intense fund raising- sales, car washes, events. That means lots of work to do to support the team.
By the end of that we are down to half.
Right now we are looking at 45. Everyone has some committee they are working for and the responsibilities are delegated out there. We even have a group of active alumni who still haven’t left- (like the Volcano Man)- who are integral members of the group.
Frankly, as team advisor, I don’t want 100 kids hanging around and being a behavioral situation who are only there because they expect a free trip. There is more to being on a team than just showing up at a meeting. I do want responsible, active kids who want to participate enough to do the fund raising and such without being a burden to the group.
I wouldn’t be too concerned that some of your kids leave. Check out WHY they leave and ask yourself- “do I really misss those particular individuals?”. Building your team is far more important than building any robot. Only you can determine what you want your team to be.
WC:cool:
Here at brazil , we have a few students that quit , but the motivation that first competition gave us make almost all students stay to work.