Anyone have any spare REV am-2901 extrusion pieces? Also, mentor trouble.

[Boris5202]

After our competition, my team tried to see how well our robot worked after some modifications. We have to present it and the team to a full faculty meeting at our school on April 13, however, while picking up totes and cans, the line for a pulley system snapped after some misuse and the fall made critical sections of this http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-2901.htm unusable. For three weeks the team tried to get our mentor to buy replacement material but he kept procrastinating and now it's out of stock. My team is in the New Rochelle area and we would be extremely appreciative if anyone would be willing to give a 6' or two 3' length. Without it, the robot cannot perform, and without a good showing, our team will likely be forced to continue to be regulated to a library for a workplace, and stuck with that one mentor. On a side note, does anyone have any experience on how they would go about replacing a terrible mentor that the team depends on? Any adult who just sat there during meetings and ordered for us the parts we needed would be better. We have evidence of multiple conflicts of interest for him, like when he tried to get us to funnel money we sorely need to his girlfriend's school. Also, we have thousands of dollars missing from the treasury which we can only guess what happened to it.

[IndySam]

Call AndyMark, there is always a chance that they have some scratch and dent pieces that they can't put on the website that you may be able to use.

It never hurts to ask.

[Boris5202]

Thanks for the advice, hopefully they'll have something.

[Greg Needel]

There is a new shipment of REV extrusion on its way to AndyMark now, and it should be back in stock within the next couple weeks.

Whenever we have scratch and dent pieces of extrusion they are for sale here at a discounted price. http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-2901_dent.htm We do have some at this time, but qty is limited as we don't intentionally have damaged products ;-)

[Boris5202]

Great. We'll probably settle for the dented stuff, just to have the time to work with it.




P.S. Your products rock.

[GeeTwo]

On a side note, does anyone have any experience on how they would go about replacing a terrible mentor that the team depends on? Any adult who just sat there during meetings and ordered for us the parts we needed would be better. We have evidence of multiple conflicts of interest for him, like when he tried to get us to funnel money we sorely need to his girlfriend's school. Also, we have thousands of dollars missing from the treasury which we can only guess what happened to it.

Your first step here is to find additional mentors. While every team is organized a bit differently, we find that we work well with about a 7:1 team member to mentor ratio. We currently have a head coach, a utility mentor (officially programming, but I'm prone to wander), a programming mentor, a controls mentor, two mechanical mentors, a paperwork/logistics mentor, and a "mental health" mentor, in addition to a number of occasional mentors. A setup like this helps reduce burnout, as well.
As to that much missing money, that's not just bad mentoring, it's criminal. How you would pursue this issue would depend greatly on who actually owns the money -- a school, a 501 (c) (3), a partnership, or an individual.

[Boris5202]

Your first step here is to find additional mentors. While every team is organized a bit differently, we find that we work well with about a 7:1 team member to mentor ratio. We currently have a head coach, a utility mentor (officially programming, but I'm prone to wander), a programming mentor, a controls mentor, two mechanical mentors, a paperwork/logistics mentor, and a "mental health" mentor, in addition to a number of occasional mentors. A setup like this helps reduce burnout, as well.


Yup, that's definitely our ideal, but we've only existed for about two years and have failed to attract any other mentors. Part of the reason we're presenting is to try and attract some of the teachers to be mentors.

[jds2001]

There's definitely a possibility that we have some. We may have used it all at NYC, though - I'm not certain. I'll check with our teacher and see if we've got any.

As for the missing funds, I'm emotionally invested in 5202, since I know a parent there - and I'm surprised he'd let such an occurrence happen, doesn't seem at all like him and AFAIK, he's fairly involved (but I'm not certain on that...).

[peronis]

I have some extra. Please PM me. I'm on long Island. So it's a pretty quick drive to get it.

[snoman]

hi
good for you guys and gals for taking charge when your mentor may not be.
1. is the team part of a school district?
2. is your mentor part of the district? if not how did he get there?

At our school (VERY rural northern MN) we have myself (technology ed teacher) who puts in lots of hours after school supervising and helping the team, two coaches 1 for the boys team (also a tech ed teacher does all paper work and helps out when wife and kids allow) and one for the girls team (MS science teacher who is very busy) but helps a lot with PR and scouting stuff, another tech ed teacher who helps out when he can, a math teacher who is good to bounce programming stuff off of and for the first time this year a actual person from industry. he works as a CNC machinist for a aircraft restoration company(thanks Steve!!) this is at a HS with a pop. of less than 200 in a town of less than a thousand ppl. granted most of us live in the surrounding area.
Huge props for keeping the team together with maybe a somewhat absent mentor!!
answer questions and i will provide more suggestions.

[snoman]

your team is done with comp.s for the year right??

[GeeTwo]

Yup, that's definitely our ideal, but we've only existed for about two years and have failed to attract any other mentors. Part of the reason we're presenting is to try and attract some of the teachers to be mentors.

The best place to look for mentors is among the parents of the team members; the vast majority of our mentors were recruited because they had a son or daughter who was interested. Many of them stay even after their son/daughter graduated, or even quit the team. If that doesn't work (or not enough), try local businesses and trade unions. Tech companies are great, but local garages, A/C-heating, and the like are also great places to find mentors. Also, ask the team members if they know anyone who builds anything or is an engineer or programmer or electrician or mechanic who might be interested in helping. If there's a remote control club in your area, try there!

When recruiting people, there are two main reasons give why they can not mentor:

Lack of time. In this case, appeal to the prospective mentor's desire to improve lives. Because FRC does improve the lives of those in the program today, and will improve the lives of the whole world in a few years.
I don't know anything about building a robot. In this case, confess that hardly anyone knows much about robots until they start to do it. However, you already know about [wiring/building/programming/gears/motors/using a lathe/managing a project/whatever], and that is certainly something about building a robot.


Actually, in a "very rural" area, probably a majority of the adults there have learned to build and repair things on the fly, just to get through the day. They may not be building robots, bot those skills can certainly be applied to robot design and building!