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Student Robotics Chat Agenda

People Attending

  • Andy Barrett-Sprot (SourceBots/Student Robotics/University of Southampton)
  • Kajetan Champlewski (SourceBots/University of Southampton)
  • Tyler Ward (SourceBots/University of Southampton)
  • Germaine (Daughter of Diane)
  • Diane Dowling (Student Robotics Trustee)
  • Alistair Lynn (SourceBots)
  • Jake Howard (SourceBots/Student robotics)
  • Peter Law (SourceBots/Student Robotics)
  • Andy Busse (SourceBots/Student Robotics?)
  • Henry Oliver-Edwards (SourceBots/University of Southampton)
  • Anton Nikitin (SourceBots/Student Robotics/University of Southampton)
  • Charlie Turvey (SourceBots/University of Southampton)

Discussion Points

Since the 2017 Competition

  • SourceBots ran a competition with 10 teams (8 attended)
  • Hill's Road ran a competition with 15 teams (8 attended)
  • New Trustees assigned

New Structure

Minutes:

  • Diane was appointed by the application for trustees
  • Rich intends to leave but is sticking around for hand holding
  • Trustee Meetings are over hangouts

    • Rich, Jimmy, Diane and David Massey (Hills Road teacher)
    • Rob doesn't attend meetings
    • Progress has been slow
  • There's a mission and values document

  • https://i.imgur.com/ArKAmjr.jpg

    • Values:
      • Accessible
        • (see document)
      • Autonomous
        • (see document)
      • Open by Default
        • (see document)
        • All documents are public
  • Andy: It's important that we have a mission as that was missing in the previous Student Robotics

  • The tree of documentation is messy in many places

    • Rich is moving them to a one big place
  • Aim to try and get the organision in a suitable shape for a competition to be ran next year

  • Roles:

    • Trustees aim for everything that is done to achieve a charitable objective
    • Trustees don't run the competition itself.
      • Looking for a core team to deliver the competition
    • Core Team:
      • Delivers the competition
      • Discussion on how that works, are they just given money to run it, or is it a bit more hands on?
      • Current trustees believe it should be very hands-off
      • It's up to the core team to find out what the core team decides
  • GDPR

    • Check you can use everyone's email addresses,
    • Decision was made it was acceptable
  • Who has been contacted

    • Team leaders and volunteers contacted by email
      • Most volunteers said they're still interested
    • Asking for 'Core team' members
  • Core team decides a lot of things

  • Kajetan: Previous volunteers have been contacted, what if you haven't volunteered before? What's the process?

    • It's down to the core team
  • Peter: Relationship between core team and charity?

    • Diane: It's not quite worked out really
      • need to decide how much communication there is between the groups
  • Peter: What about official Members of the charity?

    • Diane: There has been no discussion about members yet
  • Andy B-S: Members actually have the power to vote in and out trustees

    • Kajetan: It's good to show that there is some trust by having that power
  • It's important for the competition to be more national

    • It's understood that it might not be possible short term, but it should be a long term goal
    • There are a few others who are beyond people in Southampton.
    • This falls under the 'Accessability' value.
  • Alistair: Mentoring is an important issue, this becomes exponentially harder if we're spread out across the country.

  • There may be an issue trying to seed a core team and asking them to sort their own members

  • Andy B: Good idea to appoint a leader in the core team?

    • Diane: Wouldn't want to do that, it should be decided in a big meeting with a core team.
    • There has been a document circled to try to get a meeting with people
  • Peter: Size of core team?

    • Diane: We don't really want to dictate that, it can be decided in the meeting of the core team?
  • Having a hierarchy is problematic

    • Alistair: Structures exist that don't enforce reporting to aboves.
  • Tyler: 'Core Team' needs clarification in the email, was under the wrong impression

    • Andy Busse: Good idea to send another email clarifying this.
      • It implied that it may be a massive workload
  • Peter: Do we have contact with those in bristol?

    • Diane: Not sure as unaware of people's names
      • it seems unlikely
  • Tyler: Concerned about time, we are usually well into organising the competition.

    • Alistair: We could jump into organising it as a loose group of people
      • Diane: We probably won't directly appoint a core team
  • We have ~100 people on the original mailing list (

    • This is the mailchimp mailing list
    • There is the google group which is
    • Action point Did we post on the google group about the core team signup?
  • Budget

    • Diane will take over treasurer role.
    • Previous treasury format was strange, it's undecided what format it is
    • Peter: It's important that the budget is open and free
  • Sponsorships

    • Motorola gave money last year for the competition which didn't run
    • There hasn't been an application for the next year.
    • They're happy for the money to roll over.
  • Volunteer fundraiser

  • Kit in Southampton

    • We have kit in Southampton, can we throw it away?
    • Would Need to check, but can't see why not
  • Health and safety Legislation

    • Previously there have been some non-compliance issues
    • Need to be aware for child protection legislation too.
  • Advisory Board

    • Having a board of engineering experts who can provide tips on engineering and maximising student experience
  • Rebranding

    • We've changed logo?
      • Yes.

Questions:

What are the plans for volunteer expansion? Either expand through universities, or through individual volunteers, or both? - Diane: Up to the core team

How will Student Robotics prevent the bus factor? - Diane: Just try to reach out wider - Aside: Possibly having more regional mini-competitions in the future - Some teams don't like the idea of splitting the competition - Venue issues: - we aren't large enough for big venues - This is not an issue, as with >52 teams we are just about big enough for the smallest of big venues - - Currently Rich and Rob know everything, possible issues transitioning. - Rich is moving the docs to a single bitbucket - The previous docs were tight and overprescribed, this needs to be fixed

Communication

  • Some people have been removed from the facebook, curious why?
    • There have been a lot of platforms used for various bits and pieces, we're just tyding it up
  • Kajetan: We may be brushing away people by doing this tidying

Tech

  • Plans for Next years' kit, (and the following)?

    • Down to the core team
    • We have the kits in container in Newbury
    • Can we have all the kit (including those in rob's flat?)
      • Yes we'll look into it
    • Tyler: Inventory can be used to chase up people, assuming it's up to date
  • Teams possibly keeping the kits, speaking as a team leader Diane wants to keep them.

  • Diane (as a team leader): Important to have more of a dialogue with the team leaders

  • SourceBots uses the kits for summer schools, there was an issue of kit contention before, will that happen in the future?

    • As long as it fits with the mission statement, kits would definitely be given
  • Relationship with the University of Southampton Electronics and Computer Science department (ECS)

    • The bridge has not been burned, but is slghtly smoldering.
    • ECS gets students in return for funding
    • ECS also gets experience for its students.
  • Diane: Expanding through universities is a good idea

    • We've had a bristol branch before.
    • Kajetan: It's hard to get a branch started, we need to make it as easy as possible
  • Andy B-S: Universities tend to run in a cycle, we need to avoid getting trapped in the cycle

    • Andy B: We can expand through many ways including STEM AMbassadors
  • Likely have enough teams for a 50 team competition

    • Do we have the capabilities to run 50?
  • There's a 20% churn for the competition, why is this?

    • Teachers find it hard to find the time to do extra-curricular stuff.
    • Example: If Diane left, collyers might not be able to do it.
    • Diane started by a student finding a Student Robotics poster in the university. (outreach is apparently an important advertiser)
  • Andy B: We tend to attract more private independent schools

    • Might need to look into it.

How do we get this done?

  • Is there an aim to run the same competition again?

    • Probably not a good idea to change much.
  • Student Robotics could possibly fund an internship?

    • With the budget we have we could fund an internship to sort out kits?
  • How do we get a working kit this year?

    • As far as we know, kits are not tested/processed
    • LiPos are handled separately
    • ACTION POINT We should sort out a working party to sort out the kit in the short future.
    • SourceBots is sponsored by Farnell.
  • Copyright issues

    • Some software has strange licenses
    • Peter: Most software was created for Student Robotics, it should be reasonable to continue as it was made for student robotics and it is being used for student robotics.
      • Action Point Diane to investigate legally if it's okay to do this.
  • Sponsorship:

    • Could be sponsored by RS to get kits.

Agenda:

  • Is there a clear structure for the organisation and what are the roles for everyone involved?
  • What do the new trustees want to do, and what do they want other volunteers and us (Southampton) to do?
    • What roles within the organisation will the Trustees take?
    • Will roles below the Trustees be democratically elected?
      • How will democracy be upheld?
  • What are the plans for volunteer expansion? Either expand through universities, or through individual volunteers, or both?
  • How many committed volunteers does new Student Robotics have?
  • How will Student Robotics prevent the bus factor?

  • What issues were there with the old (steering committee) structure.

  • What issues are there with the current structure?
  • How does this structure aim to fix the issues above?

Communication

  • How will the reformation of Student Robotics communicate to volunteers and ensure that they feel engaged in the organisation?
  • will there be an open conversation which who are interested in can join in on? Ideally everything should be open and accessible in some way.
  • If the members of SourceBots decide to merge with Student Robotics, how would this happen? What would the roles of the volunteers be in the new organisation?

Tech

  • Plans for Next years' kit, (and the following)?
    • Mention the redesigned kits made for SourceBots and Hill's Roads'
      • Can we merge the two?
  • Have they been in contact with teams?
    • Number of teams?
  • Please could Student Robotics clarify what happened with the redesign of SR (the new logo, etc.)?

Misc

  • Kit in Southampton

  • Health and safety Legislation

  • Advisory Board (see Tyler)

  • Rebranding

  • Copyright issues

How do we get this done?