Summary
This document seeks to formally announce the WARG 2024 Competition Roster. The comp roster this year had several new elements and complications, wherein the team:
implemented a self-nomination form for the first time.
intended to bring 12 participants (a maximum set by the cars we were allocated).
needed to reduce the comp roster from 12 to 8 per updated competition requirements 7 days prior to the deadline.
therefore needed to waitlist 4 of our competition roster members, pending space at comp venue.
This document details the competition roster, the process that created it, and identifies flaws to improve in next year’s cycle.
Justification
This section will explain some of the considerations that went into coming up with this roster selection.
Timing
We sent out a competition interest form ~ 6 months prior to needing to lock in the roster. The internal comp roster list of 12 members was created on April 1, 2024, approx. 9 days before the submission deadline. 7 days before the submission deadline we were informed by AEAC that each team was only allowed to bring 8 people to the competition due to lodging constraints from the large number of teams. They said longer lists could be submitted, but that anyone on the submitted rosters past the ‘8th position’ was to be waitlisted, if the competition had space at the hotel venue, we would be allowed to bring these additional people. Due to this change, leads and directors had to decide which 4 people to waitlist from the existing list of 12. It is to be noted that we considered finding extra lodging outside of the competition to bring all 12 people, but this was decided against due to logistical difficulty.
Considerations for Roster Selection
Some hard choices followed, with the following considerations:
In order to fly at competition we must have at least one person who has their Transport Canada Advanced Licenses. Internally to WARG we prefer pilots who have followed our training path. Additionally, we want to feature a spare pilot in the case of illness or other unforeseen events in the future.
Members who participate in our flight tests and flight test preparation are preferred. Flight test participation is how people learn the skills required to have a meaningful contribution at competition.
In a similar vein, involvement in the team is highly valued. We want members to enjoy the privilege of competition, and hope their interest in the team in conjunction with their participation at competition is leveraged to pass their knowledge on to more junior members.
Those with a leadership position in WARG were prioritized due to the pressure to perform and self-manage at competition.
At least 4 drivers are required so we can take two vehicles and drive in 6-hour shifts as per SDC requirements. They need to have G or equivalent so SDC can certify. They need to be comfortable driving for long hours with up to 5 other people in the car. Older and more experienced drivers are preferred.
We need to take a trailer to competition. The university offers trailer certification so anyone with a license should be able to get it. At least 2 of the drivers need a trailer cert.
All competition roles need to be filled. We want at least one person to handle the responsibilities of each sub-team.
Sub-teams more critical to performance at competition, for this year or future years, will be prioritized. For example, in 2023, Project ICARUS was a mechanical headache, and required at least 3 mechanical members to maintain and fix the drone while at competition.
List
This list was generated using the responses on WARG’s Competition Attendee Self-Nomination Form. Using the above reasoning, the attendee roster list for AEAC 2024 competition is below. Please note that the first 8 on this list are confirmed participants while spots 9-12 are on the waitlist arranged in priority order.
Nathan Green
Yuchen Lin
Daniel Puratich
Smile Khatri
Hardy Yu
Emma Chan
Amy Hu
Evan Janakievski
Tong Zhang
Nathaniel Li
Aidan Bowers
Ishman Mann
Lessons Learned
Through this process, the leadership team learned some lessons/have some improvements for next season:
Self-Nomination Form:
Did not include all information needed for decision-making, including French speaking ability, driver's license status, trailer comfortability, emergency contact info, and shirt size.
By not collecting this information, leads and directors were scrambling to get it all in time to finalize the roster.
General Process
There was a lack of clear direction as to how we were going to decide on the priority of individuals to go to competition, a process would be decided on only to be changed a few hours later.
Due to the lack of direction, the prioritization process was rushed to meet the submission deadline.
The original document sent out regarding the competition roster was unpolished and missing context.
Concerns and Suggestions
Should you have any concerns about what is contained in this document or have further suggestions on how to improve this process in the future, please reach out in Discord to your subteam lead or to directors.