Skip...We had a new team last year and at that point I have never coached a team or been involved with First or the FLL at all.  However, the first year had a lot of learning going on. :)  This would be my advice for what it's worth.  I would NOT take more than 10 kids and then choose some to go to the tournament and some to be left to cheer in the stands.  No No No!  That is just setting you up for a gigantic headache and a lot of hurt feelings!  And I'm not sure that's a good message to send about teamwork.  If the parents of those kids want a team, they can put their time into it, just like you are.  There's only so much you can give and for the sake of your sanity and your team's sanity, I would steer far away from that!

I will tell you the qualities that really made our team work well and a lot of fun.  But if you have to have try-outs and there's no other way around choosing some and not others (because I definitely ditto the starting two teams!!!) than some of the things that I would look for:

*Interest in being a part of a team, and an understanding of what that means for your team.  Do they show up on time?  Have they come prepared for other things on the past? Do they talk respectfully to others?  Are they able to take advice from others?  Do they need to be the center of attention or are they good at pulling other team members in and making them feel important? Do they really want to be on the team vs. being there because their friends are (they're all there because they're friends are, but it should be more than that)? Are they willing to share the not-so fun work, and not only the fun stuff? Etc.

*The FLL is not all about robotics, but being interested in robotics would be a given.  If they are not, there are always roles they can take on that doesn't to do with the robotics piece of it but I don't think that would be the ideal situation.  If there are kids who have experience with the robot or programming, I think that would be a plus, but not a necessity. They do all learn it pretty quickly.

*Level of self-motivation.  This will vary with the age of your kids, but personally, I found this to be a big plus.  Definitely kids who want to be there and are self-motivated are much easier than those you have try to refocus a million times in a meeting.  Last year our kids were very young and I could really see why they set the age level at 9 yrs.

*Kids that you think will work well together.  You definitely don't want a team that never disagrees or has any difficulties throughout the whole season, as there's definitely not as much learning in that.  But basically have a team that gets along and mostly likes each other is a lot easier.  Maybe trying to balance the more out-going kids with more introverted kids might be something to look for.  There is a lot of learning that can come from that though.  The more out-going kids learn to slow down and listen, and the shyer kids have to learn to jump in where it's not so comfortable...but having 9 out-going kids and 1 introvert can be a challenge.  It's just something you would probably need to be aware of.  It was a dynamic in our team last year.  Those that were more out-going and loved to put their ideas out there, naturally had more of their ideas chosen, while two quiet boys felt like they had less say in things.  Sometimes when they were trying to reach a consensus, the quieter boys began not participating as a way to regain a little power in the group...which meant the whole group couldn't reach a consensus.  This frustrated them all and it took a long while to work through.


Personally, if I had a choice I would rather take a kid that was self-motivated and super interested in being part of a team, over experience with the robot.  But I would look for both.  

Amy


On Tuesday, July 22, 2014 4:44 PM, Skip Morrow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:


Thanks for all of the excellent ideas. Certainly, our first choice is for another parent (or two!) to step up as the coaches. We are still two weeks from team selection, and I wanted to prepare myself for the worst. I haven't done this before, so it is possible that I am getting worked up over nothing.


.


On Tue, Jul 22, 2014 at 3:36 PM, Alex <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I think that the division I or II split of 12 years old is a de facto criteria for team selection.
 
 
On 2014-07-22 14:15, NLE TEAM wrote:
I read in one of chain emails about selection criteria for Kids, Is there really any kind of criteria setup for team selection?


On Tue, Jul 22, 2014 at 12:23 PM, Vinayak Arumugam <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Like others have already suggested, forming a second team is a good idea (probably the best!). Overall,

  1. Ten members is a big size for one team though accepted by FLL. They may not get as much value out of it compared to two small teams.
  2. I thought only those on the team could help with the competition preparations. Thus if only 10 can be part of a team then any help from others may violate the FLL rules. Please check the FLL rules on this one and couple of other points below.
  3. Encourage (or rather demand) other parents to step up to coach and volunteer. I recall that you have to have at least two coaches identified and have passed the background checks by FLL to even register your team.
  4. If you manage to form 2nd team then perhaps same two coaches could coach both teams. Though coaches effort may increase, kids will benefit more with two teams. Ideally, you should aim for 2 teams of 5-7 kids with 2 coaches each.
  5. FLL is not about Robotics. Project and Core Values are equally important and scored in the competition. All parents, not just coaches, can help with these two other activities.
  6. I am not sure if you will be able to do any rational selection process without upsetting the parents. I think easiest would have been to go by first-come-first-serve basis. 
  7. Finally, before your first parent meeting you might want to communicate clearly that a) you will likely have to form 2 teams and hence will need more coaches and b) may have to eliminate some kids if not coaches available and c) clearly identify the elimination process (e.g. order in which you received their request via email/phone/in-person). Otherwise, it could turn out to be a very chaotic and unpleasant parent meeting!


All the best!



Best Regards,
Vinayak




Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 11:26:25 -0400
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VADCFLL-L] Getting the team down to 10
To: [log in to unmask]


I should have mentioned that. We are trying to encourage a parent to step up and coach a second team. So far none have accepted, but there's still time. That's actually our first choice, and we are going to push that pretty hard.


.


On Tue, Jul 22, 2014 at 11:18 AM, Fredrik Nyman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Is forming a second team an option? In my experience, a large team is hard to manage. 
 
If you can get some parents to volunteer as assistant coaches, you might want to form two teams of 6-7 and give everyone on the teams a substantial set of responsibilities. 


On Tuesday, July 22, 2014, Skip Morrow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I guess the forum is still broken??
 
I am pretty sure we will have more than ten kids that will want to be on our team. I have read about some things that teams have done using some of the extra kids to help out, with the understanding that they won't be able to compete. Assuming that there isn't any interest in that, what can I do to get my team down to size? We have a parents and kids meeting scheduled soon, which will be my only chance to meet with them all before we do team selection. What would you look for? Are there some activities that we could do to help us make the selections? Should we go for the smartest & brightest, or something less tangible like personality?
 
Skip

.
To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".
VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ANNOUNCEMENTS-L. Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-announcements-l.html to subscribe.
To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".
VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ANNOUNCEMENTS-L. Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-announcements-l.html to subscribe.
To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".
VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ANNOUNCEMENTS-L. Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-announcements-l.html to subscribe.
To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".
VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ANNOUNCEMENTS-L. Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-announcements-l.html to subscribe.
To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".
VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ANNOUNCEMENTS-L. Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-announcements-l.html to subscribe.

To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".
VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ANNOUNCEMENTS-L. Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-announcements-l.html to subscribe.


To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".
VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ANNOUNCEMENTS-L. Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-announcements-l.html to subscribe.