How do I motivate my team?

[per50n]

have them follow @sciolymemes_ on instagram so they can see how great the scioly community is and become motivated to be apart of it

[Oblivion]

Just yeet them

[Things2do]

Just yeet them

What now?

[platypusomelette]

We do have food at meetings, most people attend meetings but we only meet once a week and people still don't get that much done :/

[eagerlearner102]

I am on the same boat with you, platypusomelette.
My school's team started in 2014 and the team spirit idea doesn't exist in my school. To be honest, the team is more of a cluster of individuals that signed up for their own events.
I was thinking of doing an icebreaker in the beginning of the meeting but I don't know if that will help.
Practice sessions and food sounds good.
The question is, "When and where would I host my practice sessions?" I can think of a big classroom like the engineering room, but that is taken over by the robotics team.

[knightmoves]

Not all invitationals require coaches to grade? Princeton and UPenn are both within a reasonable range of Long Island where it looks like you're from, and neither requires any grading from coaches, i think.

Another option - it doesn't have to be your teacher that does the grading, or runs the event. If you can get your team parents to commit to putting in the effort, they can run the event, and they can do the grading. You need to have a teacher "in charge" to satisfy the legalities, but if you have parents willing to put effort in, you don't need your teacher to do much.

[Blank25]

I am on the same boat with you, platypusomelette.
My school's team started in 2014 and the team spirit idea doesn't exist in my school. To be honest, the team is more of a cluster of individuals that signed up for their own events.
I was thinking of doing an icebreaker in the beginning of the meeting but I don't know if that will help.
Practice sessions and food sounds good.
The question is, "When and where would I host my practice sessions?" I can think of a big classroom like the engineering room, but that is taken over by the robotics team.

At my school, we hold practice sessions at team member's houses. But we call them "Study Parties". There's always food and we usually get stuff done. So that could work towards any team really with some committment.

[Giantpants]

Honestly the main way I can think of to motivate your team would be to turn it into a family! I found that my division B team did much better in 2016 compared to 2015, when we started a team group chat, started having inside jokes, and just talked about SO more. We were friends, and therefore we wanted to do well for each other! (Cliche ik but tbf it was the only year we won regionals so either we just got lucky or the power of friendship worked)

Other than this, I'd recommend publicly setting goals for the team, so everyone is on the same page regarding the season. This year I set a challenging goal for our team, and regardless of if it happens or not, it's already generated a lot of hype on our team about the upcoming season, which to me is half the battle! Maybe telling your coach how much you and your fellow dedicated members wanna make states would help push her to want to do well, and if you articulate these things to the rest of your team, then you may be in business.

If you've already done these, idk man. Best of luck this upcoming season tho!

[eagerlearner102]

Giantpants,
That sounds very helpful. We have weekly emails but the tone is a lot more formal.
We did set goals but they were a lot more individual goals instead of a team goal. The teacher last year said that the goal for the team is that everyone can get a medal (5th place or above) but I think that was extrinsic so no one was very motivated.
Thank you for wishing me good luck.
I think setting goals surrounding the idea of teamwork, friendship, and spirit would be a lot better.
We can't really make it to states because we were 20th place last year. We have to get 4th to make it to states.

[TheChiScientist]

Honestly the main way I can think of to motivate your team would be to turn it into a family! I found that my division B team did much better in 2016 compared to 2015, when we started a team group chat, started having inside jokes, and just talked about SO more. We were friends, and therefore we wanted to do well for each other! (Cliche ik but tbf it was the only year we won regionals so either we just got lucky or the power of friendship worked)

Other than this, I'd recommend publicly setting goals for the team, so everyone is on the same page regarding the season. This year I set a challenging goal for our team, and regardless of if it happens or not, it's already generated a lot of hype on our team about the upcoming season, which to me is half the battle! Maybe telling your coach how much you and your fellow dedicated members wanna make states would help push her to want to do well, and if you articulate these things to the rest of your team, then you may be in business.

If you've already done these, idk man. Best of luck this upcoming season tho!

The family aspect definitely works. Two of my best friends where on the SciOly team with me and I throughly enjoyed competing with them.Sometimes there will be drama but if everyone is friendly with each other it goes pretty well. We feel the pressure of doing well for the team because our friends are on it and we all have the same dream of qualifying for state. Also the parties and fun times we had once we knew each other well is a priceless memory. (What happens at state. Stays at state.) Also set goals that are realistic so people are more likely to stick with them. We joked that our goal was to make it to nationals but we all knew that that would not be possible for our team. Maybe set a goal of being in the top 6 at regionals or top 10 in all your events. Those are good goals to set and people are more likely to stick to achieving them.