Team Organization

I decided to put up the charter of RE Robotics. I know different teams do things in slightly different ways, but I'm pretty proud of what I managed to come up with when I was given the opportunity to re-draft the charter and it's worked out pretty well so far:

Ransom Everglades Robotics & Engineering Team
Detailed Charter

Adviser:
Robert DuBard

Officer System:

Due to the competitive nature of the team, certain offices will be appointed by the adviser in the interest of maximum performance, based on merit and involvement of the appointees[1] ; however, there will still be representative position(s)[2] that will be voted upon by the team members. The revised positions are:

President: The President fulfills all administrative duties of the team, including but not limited to: Activities Council Meetings, coordinating events with or without separate entities, day-to-day matters of team operation, and coordination of the efforts & oversight of the sub-captains of individual robots.
Chief Engineer: The Chief Engineer oversees the assembly and design of any project the team is working on. He/She may also give suggestions, advice, or direct help to the sub-teams at any point in their project, and in extreme cases take over or terminate a project.
Chief Information Officer: The Chief Information Officer ensures that any necessary information gets to the other team’s officers in a timely manner. It is often the case that he/she will give aid to teams in the programming of their robots as the Chief Engineer would for the physical project itself, and so has the same ability to give suggestions, advice, or direct help to the sub-teams at any point in their programming project, and in extreme cases take over or terminate a programming project.
Equipment Manager: The Equipment Manager keeps track of all of the team’s tools and supplies, along with making sure that said tools and supplies remain organized. To this end all team members must be well acquainted with the methods of organization, and the Equipment Manager may, with permission of the Adviser, halt a team’s activities to help in their duties.
Captain: The Captain acts as the team’s spokesperson, and covers all assembly announcements. This position is elected at the end of every year for the following year by all members of the team.

[1] Being an upperclassman is neither a requirement nor a mandate for a member to receive any of these positions – there have been many exemplary Officers in the history of the Team that belonged to members in 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grades.
[2] The Captain position is the only officially elected position in the Ransom Everglades Robotics & Engineering Team

Optional Positions:

Secretary: The secretary acts as an aide to all the primary officers.
Treasurer: The treasurer works with the Advisor, Chief Executive, and sub-captains to obtain sponsorships, and to keep track of team funds.

Position Clarifications:

President:
The President fulfills the administrative duties of the team. These include but are not limited to: Activities Council Meetings, coordinating events with or without separate entities, day-to-day matters of team operation, and coordination of the efforts & oversight of the sub-captains. Most daily involvement is in managing the individual teams to ensure that they meet their goals. The president also acts as a representative to other teams (mostly during competition, but also for collaborative projects/events); however, most of the time the President helps to train the upcoming members, but notably the team captains.

Equipment Manager:
The equipment manager fulfills all duties related to procurement of supplies and materials for the design, construction, operation, and repair of all team robots. This member must have some skill and experience in the design and construction of robots, as they will be responsible for giving the teams the necessary supplies to complete their projects (they must know what it takes to build whatever has been designed and no more). This member must also know how to use a battery charger for all configurations and types of batteries being used in the robots, and when at competition this will be one of their primary responsibilities. The Equipment Manager will also be responsible for organizing all tools and materials, especially those to be brought to competition. This is incredibly important, as packing light is essential to all away from school events, but packing too few tools and materials will lead to significant problems later on. The Equipment Manager will also keep track of documentation, especially the layouts and materials used to build each robot. This is important, again, because enough material will be brought to competitions to completely rebuild about half of each robot, with emphasis on more material for critical components (ex: parts used with spinning weapons which have a tendency to break regularly).

Sub-Captains:
Each robot will have one person on the team who will be recognized as that ‘Sub-Team’ Captain. This person may be either selected by the group or the person who gained clearance to begin manufacturing the robot for the ‘Sub-Team’ in question. They are required to ensure that their robot is completed on schedule for testing before competitions.




Officer Removal:
In extraordinary circumstances, it may be necessary to remove an officer from their position due to any of a variety of reasons. These reasons may include:

1. Failure to complete the obligations of their office.

2. Acting as a poor representative of the Team while attending competitions, including poor sportsmanship, derisive remarks, or any other unseemly behavior.

3. Causing damage to, either with intent or through negligent behavior, any property of fellow team members or general team property.

4. Causing injury to other team members through negligent behavior with tools, robots, or any component being used or that has been used by the Team.

To remove an officer, there must be a unanimous agreement by all other team members holding officer positions (other than said officer) to bring the matter before the Team Advisor. If the concerns raised by these officers is deemed valid by the Team Advisor, the Team Advisor may either bring this as a matter before the entire team for a majority vote as to whether the officer should lose their position, or override the vote and make a decision on his or her own.

You seem organized...
Our club is organized as follows

Dan - President
Everyone Else - Members of the Club

Julien and I are probably highest ranking among the club members, but we have no official titles.

My guess is next year Julien will be President and I will be Vice President or Co-President... Or however we decide to arrange it.

Dan should give a detailed account of our club meetings because that would be very interesting for everyone on the forum... And it would be better delivered by Dan...