How to help team as a captain?

[belle]

This year we are only going to have meetings on zoom, but I have no idea how to get people to show up. When we have had in person team meetings no one shows up and they ignore emails, texts, etc. What can I and the other captain do??

We are planning on teaching classes online for each topic and also Saturday test taking/build/lab practice sessions(a big reason why people avoid us is because they feel unprepared, but they also take no steps to prepare!)These will be once a week zoom sessions for each event topic, so basically small group with the 2-3 partners for each event. We started this to hopefully help them feel prepared and show up, but I'm concerned that they won't even show up to the classes!

Any thoughts on motivating them?(we can't say that we'll kick them off the team because we have nobody else who is willing to join to make a 15 member team & we don't even have 15 members!) Also any ideas on how to build up our team's quality(essentially, winning-I think that more students will want to join if we have a good reputation of winning).

Thank you for any help you can give!

[belle]

Well... it's kind of a cycle. If more people who want to be on your team, you have more hard-working people and the more easily you can kick off people who aren't pulling their weight. The better people you have, the more you'll win, and more people will want to join your team.

If you can motivate existing team members to want to put in the time and build camaraderie, that's great. But another tip I can give you is to advertise your team and try to get people to join. There's only so much you can do to make people who already don't care care enough to show up.

Is your team approachable? If people have the notion that "oh it's only for smart kids" or that it's too scary they'll be dissuaded from joining. If people feel unprepared, maybe show them they they don't have to be prepared beforehand, and that showing up is how they will prepare.

And, finally, SciOly is a team effort, and if you can't get enough people together that care about scores and results and can't convince them to do so, you might have to readjust your goals. Maybe you want to focus on team-building and having fun together with some science on the side, rather than the other way around. You can try to persuade people, but at the end of the day, there's nothing you can do to guarantee it.

In summary: make sure you're not scaring people off, try to get more people to join, and if you can't make people care about scores, you might have to change your focus.

[Giantpants]

Hi belle!

The concept of "how can a captain help their team" is something I feel like I can better convey through hand motions and facial expressions lolol so giving a tangible word answer may be a little tough and all over the place, but I'll do my best to give what I can haha.

In my experience, the success we attained was always resultant from when everyone worked together. Yes, cheesy, I know lol but I really mean it haha this past season I feel like more of our team really "understood" what it meant to be a part of a larger body. Like, more members of our team really understood what it would take to get the results we wanted to see from competitions, and they started working towards it.

This unquantifiable "understanding" of what Science Olympiad truly is can be distributed to your teammates via a number of ways, probably the easiest of which is to help them realize how fun SO can be! Maybe introduce them to the forums or something, so they can see the groups of people all across the country who care about SO as much as you do, and as much as they could. Or maybe set a goal for your team to reach at regionals or states, so everything has something tangible to work towards throughout the season. A realistic goal however, like this past year I set a goal for our team which, while very lofty initially, slowly felt more and more realistic as our season continued. If you can convince them it's possible, it will become possible.

Lastly, maybe try to make leadership of the club something more people can feel involved in. Try asking for feedback on partners, or suggestions for events, and stuff of that nature. It's hard to do that while also not relinquishing administrative power fully, but I remember when I first became a Vice President back in my junior year, something people felt was that their events were "out of their control" and I tried very hard to make sure no one really felt that way. If a member of your club not only feels like they have some legitimate control in the club, but also they actually do have a mote of control, then they may feel more invested and part of the group. Again, however, it may be hard to find a proper balance, but that is up to you haha

This one is harder to achieve, but going to more competitions may give more chances for the burning fires of SO to be ignited in their souls! (again really cheesy oops) It happened to basically all of us on this site at some point, whether it was because we did really well or really poorly is where the variation occurs. This may be harder now because of online competitions, but when people feel like they can actually work hard and see their results pay off, it can be extremely motivating. So if you can go to competitions, the thrill of results and awards may inspire others to begin their own journey to truly "understand" SO!

Also, (and this may be the most powerful one tbh o:) creating a familial bond between a team usually helps with motivation I've noticed. I think I wrote another post once about how the power of friendship has propelled some teams I've been on to new heights lol my goodness the amount of cheesiness is off the charts in this post. However, I do truly think that can play a role. If people can study in groups after school (even if it is over Zoom) and have fun with each other while doing so, then that is not only a win in that they are studying more effectively, but then they also meet new people, thereby giving motivation with the formation of a true "team" bond, which may help the team do better in general! I hope that made sense??? Idk. lol

So yeah. Since I just graduated, I was never a captain in the age of online competitions lol, so some of my ideas may not be so helpful over Zoom, but yeah, that's just what I think. Ultimately, it is up to you, as there are so many routes you can take being a captain/leader. It can truly be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life, I know for me it definitely was.

[belle]

Thank you all for your answers!