At the beginning of every school year the team focuses on member recruitment. 👊 New members ensure continuity of the team and will be its backbone in a few years, so we want to do this, and do it well. This means 1. garnering interest, 2. making people aware of team activities/commitment, 3. onboarding members, and 4. maintaining them throughout the year.

Garnering interest

On the second or third week of school, the team likes to visit classrooms to give a brief presentation and outreach to new members. We usually work with FTC 13100 to present both of our opportunities simultaneously.

  1. On the first week, directly email teachers to ask if/when we can give the presentation.
  2. Create a sign-up sheet with information where members can sign up to present on certain days/at certain classes.
  3. Presentations are meant to encourage interested students to attend the larger interest meeting, which will be a few days after the last presentation.
    1. 2023 classroom slides example
    2. 2023 interest meeting example

Making people aware of team activities/commitment

Robotics is a HUUUUUUGE commitment, and that’s only putting it lightly. In the interest meeting, make sure to highlight the expectations for being a member so nobody is getting themselves into something they aren’t ready for!

Onboarding

After the interest meeting, members will be asked to fill out a form to indicate their interest in being on the team. This is a more captains thing, but the rest of the process looks a little like this…

  1. Add new members to slack
    1. [email protected]
  2. Ask them to fill out a subteam interest form
    1. 2023 form example
  3. Start with weekly workshop meetings

Maintaining them through the year

Member retention is something the team has always struggled with. For our veterans, here are some strategies we want you to try to retain our new members and create a welcoming team community.