2024-09-24 Leads Meeting

Owned by Daniel Puratich
Last updated: 2024-09-25
4 min read

Attendance

  • @Georgia Vachon Westerlund

  • @Daniel Puratich

  • @Nathan Green

  • @Smile Khatri

  • @Alison Thompson

  • @Megan Spee

  • @Ryan Scomazzon

  • @Maxwell Lou

  • @Tong Zhang

  • @Anthony Luo

  • @Derek Tang

  • @Hardy Yu

Announcements

Leads Offboarding

SDC Teams Meeting

  • Prep for 2024-09-25 SSDC Meeting

    • Review this document for leads to see.

    • any topics subteam leads want directors to cover that aren’t there already?

F24 Funding Wishlist

EFS/Auto Situation

  • Some Director & other leads thoughts:

    • Too many EFS and Auto bootcampers for leads to support could be causing strain on leads preventing them from handing out meaningful tasks.

    • We should not stop accepting new bootcampers.

    • Increase bootcamp difficulty to reduce influx?

      • The bootcamp doesn't prepare people for the tasks we have so making the bootcamp harder could be an approach to reduce influx and ensure people who complete the bootcamp are prepared for real tasks

    • Getting PMs as involved as possible is a good way to build leads

    • Leads for auto and EFS to provide thoughts on what they want to do

      • Need to keep improving

      • direct action items out of this meeting is the goal

    • If the bootcamp is hard then you’ll get people who want to do tasks rather

      • this is a solution for newer members

    • motivating current members

      • encouraging attending the architecture syncs and getting people to understand the usefulness of their projects

      • hardware & software divide

      • ask people to add to meeting minutes and do documentation as a way to force them to get involved with the system and be more accountable and give updates. Set expectation for members to discuss tasks

        • having things in writing forces people to think about it in advance

    • a lot of people join the team just to line their resume and not really to do anything difficult

      • this happens for all subteams

      • bootcamp is meant somewhat as a filter for people who really dont wanna do anything

      • ideally those who make it through the bootcamp we can find something that matches the venn diagram between “warg wants” and “individual wants”. Get people invested in the system to understand and get on board with what “warg wants” which kind of expands the venn diagram overlap.

    • pairing experienced and not experienced members

    • other subteams have had same issues of PMs not PMing, aligning on expectations is important

      • mech has three PMs right now

    • indefinite stalling on tasks

      • happens on mundane tasks or first task for a newer member with mech

      • giving deadlines (breaking things down into small tasks that take less than a week)

  • EFS Stuff

    • EFS is just getting started on the PMs stuff, lots of building to be done here

    • Leads are too busy to improve the bootcamp right now

    • Most of the stress for leads is that there’s no tasks to give out

      • There are enough projects, but people struggle to take them

      • can set expectations

    • Hardy onsite, Derek offsite

    • Lead’s don't have time to explain every technical detail

    • starting to do meeting minutes

      • modelling after other subteams

      • kind of do this verbally, but having it in writing might be better

    • no bootcamp changes at least in the near future, maybe eventually

    • hard to hold onto experienced members

  • Auto Stuff

    • deadlines for tasks doesn’t really work

    • people take on tasks then don’t really do anything

    • have meeting minutes already

    • people don't fill out meeting minutes

      • can’t really force them to do it

      • this includes PMs which is really difficult

    • better onboarding process

      • implementing onboarding presentations

  • maybe we circle back to this in a future meeting or director syncs?

    • running out of time in this leads meeting

SUAS Thoughts

  • Some limiting factors:

    • Only two batteries, max 100Wh each

    • Fly 15 miles

      • Very fixed wing focused and we are not confident in delivering a fixed wing system in time.

    • Airdrop payload within 20 ft of target

    • more obvious limiting factors;

      • money

      • time

      • people

  • Thus we cannot do SUAS this year but are keeping it on the horizon for 2026.

Advisor/Senior Role Revamp

  • Follow up on the roles discussion from 2024-09-17 Leads Meeting

    • a good last topic of the meeting bc we could discuss forever

  • Details fleshed out here: Discord Roles

    • If you have concerns feel free to express them now

    • there will be some hiccups in implementation obviously but we’ll figure this out

  • Faculty Advisor Selection Process

    • Brandon Dehart has accepted the position formally.

    • Looking into contacting FLIR with respect to IR camera stuff

Calendar Changes

Upcoming Meetings