How my team see me in here (Re: I need your opinion, please
 

Posted by Ken Leung at 05/24/2001 4:27 AM EST


College Student on team #192, Gunn Robotics Team, from Henry M. Gunn Senior High School.



I first know about this forum from Daniel Lehrbaum, a former GRT team leader AND a regular message-contributor who used to post on the forum back at 1999. Back then, only him and a couple members truly understood the importance of this place, and only Daniel posted on the forum while other simply come in and read about important information...

At the end of his year, I noticed how he is always looking at this web page wherever there is a computer with Internet access, and I caught my eyes in this web page and figured out how great this forum is as well. I started reading everything, and started "posting" by answering some simple questions by quoting the rulebook.

At the beginning of the 2001 competition, I was still the only one in the team reading and posting in the forum, even though I tried to tell GRT members about this place. After kick-off, I stayed with the team for another week during winter break, and during that time, I would sit in front of the computer half the time and read the forum. That's when my postings started to pick up. ;-)

After I got back to Berkeley, I found my eyes glued to the monitor screen when ever I am not in class, reading all new messages during the first week, furiously reading and replying every single minute... That's when I know I will be committed to this forum more than my weekends in GRT.

----------------------------------------------------

So, what do my team think about me posting in here~? I am not exactly sure, but somehow I got the feeling that my team started coming in here more frequently because I am so committed in here. They understand that the work time I have with GRT is a bigger priority than posting, so they never rejected or have any negative feelings about what I do in here.

I am certainly one of the few who does actual posting, while I observed around 5~6 person posting very few messages. It's because most of them are not familiar with the Chief Delphi Forum "posters" and how things work in here. Even I took a while to be brave enough to join in discussions. It is especially harder for us West coast teams since we are so far from east coast teams.

My teammates don¡¦t fully know how much friends I made in this place. To them, this place is only an information board, so they never really tried to figure everything out. The California regional doesn't help much neither because little of those teams post in this place. It was until Nationals when my team got to see how many people know me from this forum, and their feeling about this can be represented by one sentence: "Wow that's so cool!" They never minded me being away from the team-visiting friends, because I am not with the team all the time anyway.

I think that even though this forum is open to everyone from any place, not all of those people take full advantage of this place. Most of the people spending a lot of time in here are FIRST-a-holics who are really dedicated to the FIRST competition, who also see the bigger picture of FIRST instead of only doing a year long project. So it is hard for everyone to do what I do in here. However, I feel that it is important us ¡§posters¡¨ let the rest of the group know what goes on in here. Make sure they understand this competition isn¡¦t just about building a robot each year.

SHOCKED!!! (re: sore subject)
 

Posted by Ken Leung at 05/24/2001 4:44 AM EST


College Student on team #192, Gunn Robotics Team, from Henry M. Gunn Senior High School.


In Reply to: How my team see me in here (Re: I need your opinion, please
Posted by Ken Leung on 05/24/2001 4:27 AM EST:



I was shocked when I read about how Carolyn's teammates treated her after being friendly with other teams. It is totally against what I strongly believes about one of the biggest impact FIRST and CD forum have on people: Bringing people from across the country together under one roof through science and technology, and have fun, learn from each other, and be make friends with each other.

I personally will not accept such comments from my team members, because meeting people who I never would¡¦ve met without FIRST is THE BEST experience I have with this competition. I personally will not allow anything to stop me from this experience, not my team, not school work, not even a cold so terrible that I shouldn¡¦t have left my house during Nationals¡K

I am sorry to hear that her teammates don¡¦t approve other her friendship with other teams. I never imagine that happening because I've seen how FIRST bring the people together with this year's competition. I am really disappointed that such idea exists in the first place¡K

BUT¡K

I understand that some teams might be conservative about their members interacting with other teams, for reasons such as the following:

He shouldn't be walking around the pit wasting time chatting with random people! He should be helping with cleaning up!

I don't like the idea that she is with bunch of teenagers walking around talking out loud!

Why is he so friendly with other teams~?!?! Is he defecting or giving out our secrets?

...

I know some of the reasons are exaggerated, because I can see there are few reasonable explanations for teams to disapprove their teammates being friendly with other people, such as student's responsibility with the team...

However, I really think that teams ought to let their students fully take advantage of the experience at competition. To learn from other teams and teach them what you know is a truly wonderful experience. People aren't wasting their time chatting with some random person, they are sharing each other's effort in this competition, and in the process re-evaluate the times they've been through, and hopefully look forward to more competition in the coming years because they enjoyed the events.

Of course the students will have complete their responsibility with the team... AND make sure they don¡¦t fail out of school¡K but that¡¦s just a minor set back.

Another meaningful post from Ken- Thanks
 

Posted by Carolyn Duncan at 05/24/2001 9:14 AM EST


Student on team #495, The Pack, from Jamestown High School and VBEP/Raytheon/Saic.


In Reply to: SHOCKED!!! (re: sore subject)
Posted by Ken Leung on 05/24/2001 4:44 AM EST:



There were many circumstances which led to the dislike of me posting here. Some of my mentors were very controling and could not stand the fact that I was doing something that they weren't and that I was getting info to solve the problems they couldn't figure out. It was really a pride thing. Some of the mentors took every opportunity to inform myself and the other girl on the team that we were in fact girls and told us we had no idea what we were talking about based on that fact.
As for some of the reasons you suggested about adults not liking posting....
I was rarely aloud to do much in the pits. Certain mentors would tell me not to do things or would pull me aside to tell me about something I had done wrong, usually it was something like "you looked at that person wrong." Something simple like that. This is the reason I found every chance to get away from my team at comps. I love all 5 students who went to the comps and we were together at the hotel and throughout the day when the mentors were away.
I really enjoyed "talking" to people here and getting to meet them at nats. It felt nice to have people recognize me and say hi rather than you screwed up.
Not to toot my own horn but I am one of the people who put the most quality, and quantity, time on stuff for the team and bot. I look forward to being a college mentor next year and seeing everyone at nats, from a different team
C-ya,
Carolyn

Keep it up Carolyn
 

Posted by Andy Baker at 05/24/2001 10:46 AM EST


Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.


In Reply to: Another meaningful post from Ken- Thanks
Posted by Carolyn Duncan on 05/24/2001 9:14 AM EST:



Carolyn,

Wow... your situation sounds pretty tough. Kudos to you for sticking with it and wanting to be a mentor for next year.

Believe it or not, we mentors learn from you students also. We're human, and we make mistakes. Hopefully, your team's mentors learn and improve like we all strive to do.

The FIRST Competition puts all teams in pressure situations. Students and mentors sometimes say things that they regret sometimes and it's unfortuneate. Sometimes, the wiser person is the student.

I know I've learned from students over the past years, especially on the subject of team organization and increased levels of student involvement... mostly from students who post on this site.

As for posting and "networking" with other teams, we encourage our students to get to know other teams, and post on sites like this one. But, we always remind them that they represent their team, school and Delphi. Also, I remind them that whatever they post, it will always be "out there" for the world to see... so use GP as much as possible. A few of our students do post here, but I'd like to see more.

Try to get to know more of us mentors, we're not all that bad... some are kinda cool also. :)

Andy B.

Thanks
 

Posted by Carolyn Duncan at 05/29/2001 8:30 AM EST


Student on team #495, The Pack, from Jamestown High School and VBEP/Raytheon/Saic.


In Reply to: Keep it up Carolyn
Posted by Andy Baker on 05/24/2001 10:46 AM EST:



: Try to get to know more of us mentors, we're not all that bad... some are kinda cool also. :)

: Andy B.

I know plenty of great mentors. The mentors on team 122 are really cool as well as the Brazillian mentors. I learned quite a bit at nats about mentors from other teams. I was mostly taking notes on other teams mentors to see the situation I was in in a different light. Ilook forward to meeting more people next year!
C-ya,
Carolyn.

Re: Thanks
 

Posted by Tom Fairchild at 05/30/2001 6:00 PM EST


Student on team #122, The NASA Knights, from New Horizon's Regional Education Center and NASA Langley Research Center.


In Reply to: Thanks
Posted by Carolyn Duncan on 05/29/2001 8:30 AM EST:



You like our mentors, eh? And to think that all this time I thought you liked us! ;-) Glad you could hang with us and maybe learn a thing or two.

: I know plenty of great mentors. The mentors on team 122 are really cool as well as the Brazillian mentors. I learned quite a bit at nats about mentors from other teams. I was mostly taking notes on other teams mentors to see the situation I was in in a different light. Ilook forward to meeting more people next year!
: C-ya,
: Carolyn.

You guys too!
 

Posted by Carolyn Duncan at 05/30/2001 6:48 PM EST


Student on team #495, The Pack, from Jamestown High School and VBEP/Raytheon/Saic.


In Reply to: Re: Thanks
Posted by Tom Fairchild on 05/30/2001 6:00 PM EST:



: You like our mentors, eh? And to think that all this time I thought you liked us! ;-) Glad you could hang with us and maybe learn a thing or two.

I didn't like you guys... Iloved you guys! Your mentors were awesome too. I learned more than a thing or two, especially about table dancing...
C-ya,
Carolyn