Discipline & Rule Enforcement

You will find it is best to avoid disciplining your teammates, but there are times that call for it.

Start with rules

Start your team with a set of rules. It should be stated that your rules extend the rules of your school. Here are some of the rules that have served our team well:

Prioritization

Make Summit robotics a priority, and represent yourself, the team, and the school well in all events. If robotics is not your priority, that is okay but you need to be fair to your teammates

Remember you are committed to your team.

Respect

Be considerate and advise the team captain and mentors of planned absences well in advance. When you are asked to do something, if you have the ability to do it, do so. If you cannot, ask for help immediately.

Be an active participant. Take initiative when you see something you can do.

Support the decisions of the team. If you disagree, voice your opinion but stay open to alternative options.

Contributions

Contribute and value ideas of others with respect and understanding. Do not be afraid to share your ideas. Never discount or make jokes about others' jokes.

Safety

Be safe and responsible. Be conscientious about tools and equipment.

Punishments

Again, avoid punishing your teammates unless you must. Punishing your teammates will immediately take you away from being a trusted leader who your teammates feel safe around, to being a boss that your teammates need to hide things from. That is a recipe for disaster. However, there are times that must be swiftly dealt with.

Safety issues

Any time any member of your team puts anyone else in immediate danger, they must be removed from the situation. We have had isseus of people walking away from saws while leaving them running. The appropriate solution for that is to revoke the person's power tools permissions, put them on a 2 week probation, then make them prove to an adult that they can safely manage themselves around tools.

Team reputation issues

Team members who are actively harming the reputation of the team, school, or people on the team should be informed they cannot do that. If you hear of it again, move into more severe punishments. These can be reaching out to parents, putting the teammate on probation, or, in the highest case of severity, remove the individual from the team.

Team member issues

You must make your team a safe place. My teams have had a zero-tolerance policy for bullying, harrasment, and similar.