Re: In Search of A Mentor
 

Glad you found a mentor!

Have you searched for additional mentors that work for your sponsors? This helps to build a stronger bond between the team and its sponsors.

Re: In Search of A Mentor
 

We hadn't thought to reach out to our sponsors on this, as they're primarily non-engineering companies.

Re: In Search of A Mentor
 

Most of our mentors come from our engineering/technical sponsors, but we do have a number of parents (who don't necessarily work in technical fields) who come and work with the kids too, even on the mechanical stuff!

You'd be surprised who'll be interested and what skills they have - I agree, definitely reach out to your sponsors and ask. And parents too!

Re: In Search of A Mentor
 

Part of what makes FIRST amazing is that not everyone is an engineer. We (in the larger sense of the world) need engineers, but we also need machinists, teachers, graphic designers, journalists, videographers, business professionals, etc.

It's definitely challenging to gain team members outside of engineering; however, advertising that "[FIRST is] not just about the robots", is key. This is certainly a challenge that my team faces year-after-year.

While having an engineer is important to overall design strengths, it is not the thing that makes a team successful. If you look at many of the successful teams, they are run like a business: there is a robot-focused part of the team, a media and public outreach aspect, and a business and financial aspect.

Using these focused areas effectively will bring great things. Also, don't underestimate the power of word-of-mouth. Generate excitement with the students, make media releases and general advertising flyers, even if they are not as polished. Keep putting the word out and good things will happen.

Re: In Search of A Mentor
 

Great to hear, if your new mentor is not familiar with FIRST or robotics, feel free to have them come by, we are currently meeting regularly preparing for cal games.

Kelly

Re: In Search of A Mentor
 

If your team is in need of additional help I could poke a couple of the elder team members on our team. Feel free to ask for help, recommendations, design reviews, programming help. Our meetings are open to the public and our lab and robots are available for inspection. We hold classes on a variety of topics. This summer we held beginning programming classes. It went well.

On Sept 16, 2012 we are holding our "First" ever Robo Camp where parents and interested students can come to our lab and listen to a variety of presentations by the team members. PM me if anyone is interested in attending and I can get you some info. Our lab is in Mountain View, CA