Team Structure
2008 - The Gearing Committee
The Gearing Committee is the five member group that decides the overall direction of the team. It consists of the two student Co-Captains, two Mentors and one adult to be the “mediator”. This is a takeoff and improvement from last year’s Group Leaders Council. The rest of the team is then broken into two major halves, Bot/Build (BB) and Everything Else (EE). These two major categories are then broken down into individual groups, each with a group leader in charge. The four major Groups of BB are Game Strategy, Design/Engineering, Prototype/Build, and Control Systems. The four major Groups in EE are Team Operations, Image Management, Gearhead Crossing and Website.
Schedule
Every weekday from 6-9 o’clock in the evening, there is a team build session that all members are encouraged to participate in. These meetings are where most of the actual robot is built. On Saturday’s, the day starts off at Noon with a general team meeting that goes over the individual progress of each Group, these announcements are given by the Group leader with input from the lead mentor in that field. These involve what has happened over the course of the week, and what is expected to get done next week along with any long-term plans. For the rest of the day, until 9 pm, we move on down to the shop and begin work. On Sundays the team starts at 1pm and meets down in the shop to begin work until 6pm. In addition to these pre-scheduled meetings, meetings between individual groups (like build meeting with design) are common and usually less formal than scheduled team meetings. These multi group meetings are an essential part to the communication throughout the team.
Communication
As in the years past, our main form of communication is through our forums. Our forum consists of threads that have reference to each of the Groups in the team. In addition to these there is a thread for less relevant material called, appropriately, “Life, the Universe, and Everything.. Other than Robotics”. As a way to enhance the communication within our team, as well as with other teams and interested individuals, we started a blog that each Group leader is responsible for.
