Hi everyone so we wanted to start a robotics club at our school and right we consist of 6 people (including me) and 2 teachers who stay after school. We have a couple of months of experience and have gone to one VEX V5 competition and are going to our 2nd one soon. What advice do you suggest to us and do you guys have any documentation regarding how you started a club and managed it
I don’t have any documents, but I will say make sure everyone works together! Teamwork can make or break a team, so make sure to have defined roles and scheduling times that everyone can make it. I’ve seen teams breakdown due to lack of teamwork. Builders, coders and drivers all need to understand each others role and can help out if someone is absent. Good luck!
Thank you so much for the advice. How did you make sure everything works together? Do you have specific goals in mind to make sure teamwork is proper?
Welcome to Vex!
A resource I believe may be helpful for you is this resource by the Purdue Sigbots. This website contains a ton of useful information for new teams such as startup and fundraising, as well as information on Vex and its different aspects once you are stated up.
Hope this helps and best of luck!
- Team 11865A
Thank you so much for the advice. I actually made the same post to Reddit and got the same link but thank you for giving advice https://www.reddit.com/r/vex/comments/1q61dsh/starting_a_robotics_club_at_school/
One of the best ways to find resources here on the VEX Forum is the search bar in the top-right (look for a magnifying glass icon). A simple search such as “New team” will find you a boatload of relevant information. Here’s one topic from the aforementioned search for starters: link.
Happy Searching!!!
Some advice I have for you is don’t goof off, don’t yell at your teammates, and don’t just sit on the computer if your the coder. That’s all I have no documents sorry
Thank you so much for the advice
Thank you so much for the advice
One of the best ways to get started would be to find if you have a nearby school or club with a good competition history and track record and reach out to them.
They may invite you and give you a few show and tell sessions where you could see how they operate. Or one of their senior students or mentors may volunteer and come over to your place to give you some hints and advice.
In our area we had experienced high school students volunteering to mentor middle school teams with great mutual benefits quite a few times.
No problem. If you need anythin,g let me know
Hello!
I am a HS coach and I started our team 4 years ago and have on average 4 students per team. Time management and documentation I think are the two biggest things. Making sure that teammates are all involved and are bringing their ideas to the table will ensure success.
Something that really increased my teams cohesion is that I made it so that every teammate had to do a little of everything. I found that when we had “coders only” and “builders only” roles that often the coders would sit and wait because the bot wasn’t built yet and once the bot was built the builders would stop coming so the coders were confused how things worked. We have Team Captain (lead builder) and Team Manager (lead coder) now and they are responsible for delegating tasks to team members based on member strength.
We also use a Kanban board in tandem with a Gantt chart to make sure that big projects like “designing bot base” and “implementing pneumatics” are broken down into small pieces and that someone is held accountable for getting that task done in a timely manner.
I also gave each of my students a small hardback notebook so they can keep all their research, ideas and personal notes in one place. This is helpful because when they go to notebook as a team (they do this two times a week during homeroom) they remember small details that they need to document. The notebook is an A6 size so when we compete the kids will take it with them when they talk to other teams so they can document specific team inspo and alliance information.
I like this post not because I do it this way, but because I dont’ do it this way. That post shows that different coaches can make different styles work.
I don’t explicitly plan to have every kid do a little bit of everything, but year in and year out, it works out that way organically. I do also believe it helps cohesion, because for example, builders who code an auton, learn that drivetrain friction is the enemy of auton. So later, those two team members have relatable reference points when troubleshooting autons.
I also use gantt charts, but I use it to plan when notebookers notebook, builders build, coders code, and drivers drive. I lower the chaos and time wasting by not having drivers and coders scheduled to be in the room distracting the designers and builders workflow when there is no robot to code or drive. I do it like a construction crew, I don’t have the electricians come in while we’re pouring concrete for the foundation or framing the house.
However you choose to do your team, strive to keep productivity up, and chaos down. Smaller, more focused groups are easier to manage than a room full of kids just goofing around , playing on their phone, eating, talking loudly, and distracting everyone till their mom comes to get them. If you are going to be in the room for 1 hour, don’t let it evolve into 15 minutes of work and 45 minutes of nonsense.