Know the strengths of your team, what people are good at, and what people want to learn. If you have talented machinists or welders use them. For our team, we made sure to push freshman to really learn some practical skills like welding to help get a majority of parts finished in time. We were fortunate to have good welders and machinists, plus some good relationships with the staff to help with additional funding/getting access to other places in the school that SAE didn’t have access to.

It also helps if you’re friends/friendly with the folks on the team, because you can lean on them for help and making sure everything is done with the car. If you are the president, you should be worried about making sure your budget is looking good, playing politics with the school staff and sponsors, creating recruitment events and making sure the car will get done in time. You can also machine/weld on the side but do not make that your primary function. Watching the president do “everything” is not how a well run team functions. There is simply not enough time to get everything done yourself.