Re: Team Corruption - Advice Urgently Needed
 

Anyone that has ever had to spend the time and money to sort out a legal issue knows that such matters are not free. Not free for the plaintiff(s) or the defendant(s). You might be 'made whole' in a monetary sense but you can't really replace the lost time, opportunity and relationships. Unfortunately people often overlook this. Much like bullying, you rarely walk away from such a situation entirely whole.

That being said: this is obviously an issue that weighs heavily on the person(s) that posted it. Maybe they haven't sorted all the dimensions of the issues in their own heads either. So it's hard to say that merely posting it defines the scope of the entire situation.

I agree with Gblake above (bottom of last page). Let's let them advance the issue with the people that can get into the specifics if they wish to do so. At least this way it won't turn into a free-for-all in a public venue where the harm to every person involved will be impossible to understand, control or balance in fairness.

To put that in perspective I have looks like 4 pieces of negative feedback from students from this topic towards my reputation.
Seriously you all think you can handle this responsibly in this forum with reactions like that?
You have every right to your opinions and so do I and it's this sort of reaction why raising a posse rarely creates justice.

So to reverse this issue: if I have to take the reputation hit to speak my mind so be it, I will make the unpopular point.
Anyone that knows me knows that I know what it is to be bullied so think that over.
I am not in school, I am 38 and I am at the top of my field in STEM and I make almost 4x what my Mother & Father did.
I got here around countless bullies and bad situations so I am sorry if advice that worked for me is not the advice people want to have posted but I learned a long time ago to be true to myself.
There is endless opportunity for conflict in life, you can't hope to fight every battle, you can pick the conflicts that are likely to matter to you the most and navigate around the rest.
Otherwise you may fight the good fight in every battle and in the end you missed out on your dreams because you let everyone else hold you back in their endless battles and bickering.

Re: Team Corruption - Advice Urgently Needed
 

you know it sounds like you have a huge team that has some serious issues that likely aren't going to be resolved without the mentors being "retrained" in their responsibilities. That said, mentors aren't babysitters, either. How many members feel the way you do? Can you enlist their help to confront the bullies?

Many adults who are not involved in education believe kids will do their own policing, and sometimes that happens, but even in the best groups there can be problems. We have one student, for example, who is bipolar and bullies others to get their way. It's difficult for mentors to know how far to let this go, when they are so manipulative. Even a team vote can be bullied by this person. After having a couple of disastrous work sessions following this student's insistence for a redesign of one of the robot's elements, our mentors and other students started seeing the problem. We have worked as a team to reign this individual in, and still let them know that their input is important, but that we wouldn't tolerate their bullying or manipulations.

My advice is to get a group of students together who feel the way you do, outline the problems (without a blaming tone, just be factual), and ask that you sit down with one or two of the mentors you feel are receptive. This is really important to do before you go to competition, as frankly competitions seem to bring out the worst member-to-member interactions.

If your team is huge, it may be time to form another team if the mentors are receptive to that idea. Sometimes starting fresh is best. On the other hand, teams change so much every year with their graduating seniors.....

hope this helps some....

Re:
 

If you notice at all FIRST events, anyone enter the playing area/arena is subject to audio/video recordings & that by entering the facility you are giving permission to be recorded. This can be a alternate for those laws.

Re: Team Corruption - Advice Urgently Needed
 

I know this thread has been dead for a while, but if you still need help, my team has extensive experience with inner-team corruption and issues with upper management not being the most quality of people, and have a lot of advice to give. PM me if interested (it's a long story and an even longer solution).