Leadership Changes Spring 2019

Motivation:

The motivation of these changes is that the first line of contact leadership positions (bot lead, 3lb czar, subteam lead, mentor, etc) are instrumental to retaining new members. Often being younger leaders, they tend to struggle with what the position means. We want to provide guidelines in order to make them as successful as they can be in that role.

Furthermore we are making all responsibilities explicit and giving team leads the ability to delegate responsibility. All the responsibilities below have been unofficially required of leadership without ever explicitly telling them beforehand. The team should be able to choose whomever they think is the leader of the team. That leader should be able to do what they are most interested in and qualified for, but all responsibilities must be handled by someone.

These are the main reasons why the changes below are being made:

• Leaders should know the training curriculum so they can plan their team based activities in conjunction.

• Building the community of leads of a discipline is instrumental in giving younger leaders exposure to the larger RoboJackets knowledge base. They can learn from older leaders and have a direct line to other teams if there are possible avenues for collaboration or assistance. Discipline core is the most direct application of this, but training gives further exposure.

• Training should serve all teams. The cornerstone of training is that there are skills that all new members should learn and RoboJackets as a whole benefits from it.

• The leaders that work directly with new members are their first exposure to the organization. A leader in that role should understand what the expectation is when it comes to meetings with new members present.

Teams that have shown investment in new members during the early phases in the way outlined below have shown greater engagement and retention. We want all leaders to benefit from this knowledge. While the above reasons are targeted at new members, the learning in this organization never stops and can be applied to everyone across the board.

We acknowledge that this is an increase in the workload of our introductory leadership positions. The intention is to clarify their roles rather than add additional ones. In an ideal world there would be enough capable people to cover all specialization of any role, each person would have a single responsibility, and all projects would work as expected. Unfortunately we are lacking people and at this time cannot add additional roles. Historically leads have taken all the roles outlined below and we want to give further power to leads to make the decision that is the best for their team at the moment.

We wanted to give out the ability for team leads to appoint people to the different roles we have recognized. We believe that giving as much autonomy to teams with regards to deciding their own future is paramount for creating long term stability. Team members understand their needs in the present than we can hope to in the past. The intention is to create a framework that can be extended and contracted as the team shrinks and grows.

Disclaimer: Just because someone is not required to participate in training does not mean that others shouldn’t. We encourage all members who are interested to participate in training. The more trainers, the less work on an individual.

Subteam lead/bot lead:

The role of a subteam/bot lead is to ensure that their section of the team is functioning. It is your responsibility to ensure that the members of your team are taken care of. If you are interacting with new members, it is your responsibility to spend the meeting walking around and ensuring they feel supported in their technical projects. There is a good chance this means that you will be doing less technical work; this is expected. Your main focus is to build the team. You do not have to make all of the technical decisions, that can be left to the team at large and older members.

You are required to go to the discipline cores. If you are unable to attend, you are responsible for communicating this to the chair of that meeting, writing up your report, and sending someone else that can present on your progress. Additionally, it is advised to pull in members to these meetings when a topic they are particularly knowledgeable comes up.

Definition: participate in training - you will help plan the curriculum and lessons over the summer and then help with teaching at least one day a week during the training period in the fall.

Subteam lead (IGVC, RR, RC):

You must participate or appoint a member to participate in the appropriate discipline training. This means you or a delegate of your choosing will attend at least one training a week during the training period to assist with teaching.

You are advised to create a training curriculum for your specific team in the summer to be implemented during the fall. You have complete latitude to do whatever you think is most beneficial to your team. The training curriculum can be made up of anything that helps teach new members the skills they need.

Additionally the subteam lead can appoint a technical lead. The job of the technical lead would be to focus in on the technical projects going on within the team and be less involved in training. The subteam lead can appoint themselves to this role with the expectation that someone within the team is responsible for their general training requirement and their team specific training requirements. It is heavily encouraged that the STL be aware of general training curriculum as described in the motivation section.

How this applies to BattleBots:

The team must send a single electrical member to the discipline cores and to participate in training. This person will be appointed by the BattleBots project manager.

The 3lb czar is required to be involved in the preparation of training over the summer. The czar should know the curriculum and be able to plan the 3lb schedule around it.

A single mentor will be required to participate in mechanical training. The mentor will be appointed by the 3lb czar.

An experienced bot lead will be appointed by the BattleBots project manager and will be required to participate in mechanical training.