We had narrowed our choices to fit two basic categories; a
service related type of project or purely recreational. We analyzed the scope of some
projects that interested most of us. The group preferred to do some kind of community
service which would also be a fun process. With food sorting we felt it would be tough to
assess our performance as a group and some of us felt it was not so much fun. Then, with
sponsoring a refugee family, we did not have the necessary resources. With the idea of
sailing to block Island, although some of us were really excited, we could not find a
boat. Even if we did, we knew it would be expensive and some of us were worried about the
cold weather and the safety of this adventure. The garage sale and car wash also needed
good weather and that was unpredictable around this time of the year.
At all times our group felt the importance of choosing a
project that could be successfully completed given the timeline and the importance of
assessing our high performance as a group. With this in mind we all felt strongly about
community service and building a Habitat for Humanity was agreeable to all. While working
out the details we found out that lead paint had to be removed from the demolished site
and debris cleared before we would start building. The organizers wanted us to come in to
clear debris. The group was dissapointed at this turn of events. We did not feel up to the
changed task.
The idea of kite flying came about suddenly. Even though
this idea came at the very end, the group was truly excited about it. There was no
groupthink. Everybody saw the feasibility of the project while having fun, things were in
our control. We worked very efficiently soon after the decision was made. We went shopping
at the Mystic kite shop. Although kite flying sounded easy enough, we found out that it
was not that easy after all. We had to do a lot of decision making before we could decide
what to make. We had a choice of custom designing the kite vs buying a kit. We decided it
would be safe to buy a kit because we did not have the expertise to custom design one.
Then, there was the choice of choosing among kits that involved anywhere from five minutes
to 20 hours of building time. Among kits the choices we faced were tremendous. There were
frog kites, bird kites, octopus kites, umbrella kites, box kites, sailboat kites,
tetrahedrons and many many more. Once again, the idea behind this project was to have fun
and not to get ourselves frustrated with putting too much time and effort into a kite
which we are not even sure how to fly. So we picked 'The Rage', which required about 10-15
minute assembly.
Our shopping sessions had added excitement. Some of us
were called to work, while one of us had an accident driving to the kite shop and some
others waited forever for the lost few. These events reduced our timeline for the project.
Also our weather dependent project had to be executed almost spontaneously when we
realized it was the best day that we could ever make with all our schedules. We amazed
ourselves at the efficiency with which we worked the logistics. Our group naturally split
tasks and before long we were flying the kites. We bought our kite kit and got together at
Avery Point beach and flew the kite as we enjoyed some pizzas, cookies and sodas. Of
course, we all had our share of frustration with flying the kites. Initially, we had
constant nose dives and tangles. After a while we started understanding the dynamics of
the kite. Slowly but surely all team members tried the one, two and three stacked
configuration. We had to work as a team to achieve all of this.
