Restarting WARG

This page contains instructions and tips about restarting WARG in case the team collapses in the future.

Introduction

In the Fall of 2019, UWARG collapsed for the first time since its inception in 1998. I was a new member of the team when this happened, and was heartbroken when I heard the news. A term later, the covid pandemic caused me to lose my coop and I took it upon myself to take that term to restart the team, and shape it into what I would have wanted it to be. Right now the team is prospering, the future is bright, and we’re accomplishing feats I only dreamed of at the start of all this. I leave this document behind in the hopes that no one will ever need to read it, but if the team collapses again in the distant future, and someone interested in resurrecting WARG comes along, it will give you some idea of where to start and what things to look out for in your journey.

The big points

Be Aware of the commitment

It turns out restarting a design team is incredibly taxing. You're going to have to commit a lot of your time and make it a priority, at least until some momentum is built. But more importantly, it’s a massive emotional investment as well. If you care enough about the team to want to do this, it becomes inevitable that you’ll be tied to it emotionally. When things are going good, you’ll feel incredibly proud and when things feel like they’re falling apart, well, you’ll feel like you’re falling apart. Be aware of these things, just thought I’d mention it.

Create a founding team

Unless you're a very specific type of person (you're not). You can’t do this alone. You just can’t. You need someone to bounce ideas off of, to share the workload, and to talk to when things feel like they’re going awfully. You’ll drive yourself insane otherwise, and more to the point, you won’t produce much of value as your decisions will be made completely unchecked. The optimal number for a founding team is 3, but 2 is fine too. You’ll want these people are to be as dedicated as you are. 3 is great because disagreements can be settled, everyone feels very accountable, meetings don’t have to be canceled every time 1 person can’t attend. Note here that your’e bound to be a bit disapointed with potential members. In my time restarting, quite a few friends and acquaintances who heard what I was doing reached out and were interested in helping but ended up deciding not to commit to it. It’s normal, it happens a lot with design teams, just don’t expect everyone who comes knocking to be as committed as you are.

Stand on the shoulders of giants.

Your first order of business should be to contact past team members and gather as much of what they say as possible. You’ll want to understand exactly why the team collapsed, where the team was in terms of technology when it collapsed, what the team’s goals where, what the architectures of the technologies was etc. Seriously, this is your best resource, do not underestimate it. The team has a really rich history, and at the time of writing, we’ve got 20+ years of knowledge stocked up.

Salvage what you can

WARG has piles and piles of source code, mechanical models, documentation, hardware, aircraft, telemetry equipment and so on and so on. You’ll want to track it all down. Talk to past members and the department to figure out where things are and what things you can still have. The team also has money and sponsors. If you're lucky, those bank accounts still exist. Talk to Sedra Design Centre people (think Peter Teertstra, Paula Petrie, Victoria Alderson) about what you can have.

Talk to WARG’s previous advisor

You’ll want some sort of department connection. Ideally, someone who is willing to fight for you in the administrative stuff that’s way over your head. For us, that’s prof David Wang. Reach out to him, talk to him about your plans and ask for advice.

Build the team in your image

Some advice that’s a bit more fun now. Yes you're restarting a team that’s been around for a long time, that doesn't mean you have to keep going the way they were going. Learn from the past, but use it to build your dreams. This is your best opportunity for transforming WARG into what you want it to be. Think really, really big. And remember to ask for advice along the way. Old members will be helpful and your co-resurrectionists will keep you in check.

Make solid plans

You can’t be wishy washy. You need to take your dreams and actually turn them into architectures, goals, and plans. Hammer this stuff out as best you can, both with your founding team and with old members of WARG.

This includes doing the boring, administrative stuff. Think the SDC’s Term Information Form, coming up with budgets and timelines with projects, breaking your plans down into tasks that new members can pick up, finding a place to flight test (likely WRESTRC 's driving pad).

Recruit

Odds are that this is why the team died. Members are the heart and sole of a design team. Once you're ready, put in all the effort you can into getting new members to join. Shouldn’t be so hard since you’ve got an insanely exciting vision for the future, right ? Recruit anyone who’s interested, of course, but don’t underestimate first years. In my time, first years made up the majority of the team and it was their work that helped to accomplish my dreams. Seriously, recruit all the first years you can - they will quite literally be the future of your team when you’re gone.

The caveat is that there is a right time to begin your recruiting efforts. Do it too early and you’ll find yourself with tons of labor that you can’t assign work to because you don’t have goals hammered out yourself. My advice is to work with your founding team to hammer out your vision and to make tangible, clear architectures and plans. Only when that’s ready should you open your doors to recruiting.

Explain

This ties strongly into the above. Once you have new recruits, odds are not many will have a lot of experience. No new member will knowing exactly what state the team is in/what needs to be done/what one must know to get what needs to be done.

As soon as you have man power, use it. Take all the time that’s needed to explain tasks, designs, visions, and anything that anyone asks about. Do not take an “it’s faster to do this myself than to explain it” approach.

Explaining also includes documentation. Document everything you can - whether it be a new design, a new workflow, a flight checklist, financial logs, a list of ideas for the future - if you can talk about it/discuss it, you likely can document it. So do it, and then when people have questions you can direct them to those documents.

Don’t ever stop dreaming

Just don’t. Get out there, and put something really really great in the sky.

What to do if

You feel overwhelmed, sad, confused…

Talk to your co founders. Speak honestly about how you feel and let them help you through it.

Faculty isn’t answering

Message other faculty and don’t be afraid to bug them. Just find someone who will answer and be willing to help.

You have a shortage of manpower

Talk to other design teams to ask about recruitement opportunites. Talk to the SDC about when the next recruitement event is. If you hear about hackathons, message the coordinators to ask if you can set up a workshop. Spam social media (Discord/Messenger groups, Reddit, Facebook groups, etc.). And maybe most interesting, get a coop to work for you. It’s free, pretty easy, and 40 hours of work per week is an insane quantity.