Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

Chief Delphi, I'm in need of advice.

With the coming build season, I'm about enter my ninth year of FRC, and sixth year of mentoring.

Over the past few years, I have found that my exhaustion at the end of build season has increased steadily, to what I think is a likely unhealthy level. Let me summarize briefly:

Three years ago was my first time mentoring two teams and taking classes at the same time. It was tiring, but my role on both teams was limited and I came out of the end of competition season feeling tired but satisfied, intending to do more the next year.

Two years ago, my mentoring role on one of the teams increased greatly, and I took more classes. By the end of build season, I was thoroughly exhausted. At the end of spring break (all of which I spent working on a practice bot), I essentially spent three days in bed. At the end of competition season, I wanted to see/hear/do nothing related to robotics for the better part of two months. Somehow, miraculously, my grades were alright despite doing essentially no homework and missing lots of class. I resolved never to do that again, and not to increase my mentoring responsibilities moving forward.

Last year, despite my best efforts, my mentoring role on both teams increased (again). I did not take classes during the spring semester, because it might have killed me. The "I am saturated and do not want to see/hear/do robotics for a long while" point was reached about halfway through competition season. I was just as tired at the end of the whole thing as I was the year before, despite not having taken any classes. I shudder at the thought of what would have happened if I had.

Now, I've graduated, and another build season is almost here. Next year, I will likely not be doing FRC - at least, not with these teams, since I will be in grad school and won't be here.

I suppose what I want to ask, after all of that, is how one decides what a healthy amount of involvement is and how one feasibly sticks to such a limit. I do not want to repeat the mental and physical toll of my last two years of mentoring. I also do not want to stop entirely, because I love FRC and care a lot about the teams that I mentor. Presently, I feel like I have no idea how to actually reduce my involvement. I show up to meetings, I see things that look like they won't be done if I do not invest myself in them, and I feel obligated to do so. I can't be the only one who struggles with this, and hopefully some other mentors who have dealt with similar issues can weigh in.

I feel reasonably certain that if I do not do something, the trend will continue and I'll burn out even earlier this year.

Any and all advice is welcome.

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

I know it can be rough. Many mentors / coaches and students put in hundreds of hours in 6 weeks. How many other adults are helping you? Why two teams? It would be hard to see a team fail by stepping back but it may be necessary. Is the team part of a school district? Can you find others to lessen the load? You shouldn't need to get too burned out on something you enjoy. This can be something you want to do for many years to come.
Best of luck..
Maybe there needs to be a mentor support group :o

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

My strategy while I was in college was to limit the time I spent at robotics. I would come help the team Friday and Saturday, and then go home and get ready for the next school week on Sunday. It was easy to maintain the separation since the team was an hour away where I grew up, and I would stay over night.

My current strategy on 971 is to try to find enough mentors so we can still have a lot of fun and do really cool stuff, but not work as hard while doing it. I also try to make sure that new mentors know that they don't have to be the ones to own solving all the problems. We have a team for that, and if all they can do is put in a couple hours here and there, that is still very helpful. We've been keeping a lot of our mentors, and (fingers crossed), hopefully we can continue that.

Hopefully that starts you thinking. I wish you luck!

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

One of the biggest problems we all having is caring about these teams and robots too much. It makes it really hard to step back at times. The biggest thing I think you need to remember, throughout the season, is that it's the students team and the students robot. Help them, push them, but if something isn't going to get done it's not your responsibility to do it. Tell them, push them during the meetings, and then go home and get some sleep.

For me, I show up for the team meetings, and that's it. I don't stick around to keep working after they leave, I don't come in at other times to do stuff if it didn't get done. During the season, I keep a very strict bed time (much, much more strict than out of season).

Just remind yourself every day - for the kids to benefit from your experience and knowledge, you have to stay healthy!

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

In addition to the great comments already posted, you might consider a different role.
Some ideas to keep you involved but to reduce your responsibility and increase your fun:
- Be more of a resource for your teams,
- Be a senior mentor to review what the various teams are working on,
- Be a design mentor and have Skype online meetings,
- Focus on helping the team build initial prototypes and let the team take it from there.
(If you can, pick only one of these options)

A big part of FRC mentor stress can come from not wanting to feel like you are letting your team down. One way to avoid this is to be more like a consultant. You provide options with examples from your experience and then let the team decide. Now you are off the hook. The team made their decision and they have to make it work.

Mentoring on every team is different, so its hard to know how to help.
My approach is to do more in the summer and the fall, so the build session goes smoother.
Working with experienced students verses rookie students also has its differences.
For experienced students, you can be more of a consultant. For the rookies you may spend more time on safety, proper tool use and basic assembly operations. If you decide to pull back, have your experienced students help with the rookies. Or train up parents to fill in.

Whatever you decide, I recommend you clearly communicate your intent to your team, so they can step up or find others to help.

Dave

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

Eli,
I can't help be the parent here for just a minute...
School is more important at this point than almost everything else, FRC included. Get it done first!
That being said, nothing I have come across prepares one for life better than an FRC build season when taken within limits. I am constantly surprised by my rapid movement to problem resolution in my day job simply due to FIRST experiences. You somehow get to the point that you filter out all the background noise and get right to the direction you need to take.
However, one thing that FIRST has taught us, is prioritizing. Do what needs to get done first and then move on to the lower priorities.
I know it is hard to say 'NO' to students. I have struggled with that for 20+ years as a mentor and before that as scout leader. But to be an effective leader, you have to like what you are doing and you have to feel comfortable with the commitment. I have always told myself that as soon as I was no longer giving a good experience to my students, it was time to retire. I hope and pray I will recognize that when it comes.
Whenever you are thinking about getting your degree and you will have many moments in the future, remember we (the other adults here) are right behind you. We will pat you on the back or whack the back of your head, whatever is needed.

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

Yeah, what Al said.

I have been mentoring my own team entering it's 15th season. I have been a FIRST Senior Mentor for going on 4 years. I ALWAYS tell graduating high schoolers to concentrate on your college education FIRST! I do not even allow my former Rosie students to come back until after they have that degree. (socially, yes, as a mentor, no)

If you want to still stay involved in some manner, volunteer at an event. Be a robot inspector, be a field reset, pick a role and fill it at an event. It's a great way to be involved without a lot of time commitment.

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

You can try taking next season as a volunteer role instead of going cold turkey. I don't know where you are going to grad school, but I'm sure there is a way to work out a great volunteer role in that area. You'll still get to see FRC and it is a lot less stressful and just as important for the competition.

I think you know what you have to do since summed it up by stating that taking courses again with your mentoring would have "killed you".

As mentors, we care a lot about our teams. It is OK and healthy to admit you cannot handle the stress anymore. In fact, I think it is a very acceptable thing to do. We are all volunteers, after all. I know I am in a similar position and may take some time off after this season due to many upcoming life changes.

The best advice I can provide is that you need to take care of yourself first, but don't forget the responsibility of setting in place a plan for someone to take over your responsibilities. I am sure the other mentors will provide plenty of help in this area.

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

Between my jobs and FIRST I have crossed the burnout mark more than I can count. It is not unusual for me to pull a 90-100 hour week and that can happen easily even without FIRST.

A couple of things:

1. There are many ways to help people without locking yourself into a deadline FIRST openly admits is always too short for a job too big.
2. In the end you are contributing to the schools skills and opportunities they ought to have solved for themselves with all those fantastic property taxes which basically get funneled to them.
3. Harming yourself robs FIRST in the end because this project takes every sort of resource you can offer: time, money and good will. What you do not have today you may have tomorrow.

I walked away with an associates degree from college. Now I make way more money than I want to talk about and little of it is in my degree scope. The priority is to balance your needs and those of the people you help.

This may mean you find and train other people to help you mentor these teams to free you up to finish school or increase your earnings to protect your well being with the goal of giving back more later.

Whatever you choose to do it should not be about 'what can you do for me today' it should be about 'what did you do for me when I needed it'. FIRST is bottomless the more we do the more there is to be done. That said FIRST is not unique in being bottomless it is just the lot we all threw in with. A good cause but please find balance.

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

Echoing other posters - school is more important than FRC! You'll be a great mentor AFTER finishing your degree programs.

Its all about math. How many hours are you in class? How many hours do you need to study? How much sleep does it take you to be productive during the day? Do you have family that needs some time from you? Learn to say NO! Before making any commitment, do the math. Are there enough hours in a day? in the week? in the semester? After agreeing to play a role that shouldn't burn you out sit down every Sunday night and plan the week, hour by hour, and stick to the plan.

Good luck!

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

Again, focus on your education. You are setting a good example by doing so.

As Tim suggested, working as a volunteer at a tournament or two is a good way to limit your time commitment. Do factor in that you may have to allow some time for training beforehand, depending on the role.

If you have a lot of experience in a particular area, you can lead workshops in that area to help rookie teams and others that need the help.

You can also attend Kickoff with a team and help them brainstorm in the week after. Afterward, you can help them evaluate some of their solutions. This can be done with short visits, through Skype or by them sending you CAD screenshots.

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

To your first point, "how one decides what a healthy amount of involvement is"

Self-reflection and advice from outside yourself. Seems like you are doing both of these just in this thread. I'd recommend talking to older adults in your life, maybe even lead mentors on the teams you are working with, to identify how your involvement can be adjusted to maintain a more balanced life.

To your second point, "how one feasibly sticks to such a limit"

Accountability. You need people around you to support you in the decisions you've made to lead a more balanced life. Friends in college, family, significant other, fellow mentors, etc are all candidates for people in your life who can fill this role.

Hope this helps, best of luck.

-Mike

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

On GRT we have done a number of things to help with burnout.
1) Train the students in the fall so they need little instruction and guidance. This cuts down on mental stress.

2) Cut back on shop hours. Over the years we have cut back 22 scheduled hours a week. At one point the team woke about 2 hours more a night then was scheduled. We now take Friday nights off. The same amount work gets done since the students have to plan for less time.

3) Have breaks for games and things. I would love to have our school Jazz band play for us one night.

4) Naps!! Since I get up at 3 AM for my other job and I get senior discounts I try to nap when I can. I track my sleep hours and if the hours get below 5 hours a day for 2 days I have to cut back.

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

Mentor burnout on our team has happened for 2 main reasons:
1. We spent way too much time at the end of build season, even though we were at the point of diminishing returns (because everyone is so tired).
2. Working every day of build season.

In recent years, we have taken several days off to rest. We have also treated our seasons as if it was the "5 week build season." This forced our team to spend a lot more time/effort in the beginning and treat the last week as a more relaxed, but focused effort without being as tired.

Of course, it doesnt always work out because the design doesnt........but at least we try.

Overall, we try to be over-prepared prior to the build season so that we dont have to waste time doing non-robot building tasks in addition to the the crazy amount of things that have to happen.
We have a 3 week winter break this year just prior to build season, and have spent time preparing.
I always order more parts than I need, have the students clean every inch of all of our Robotics workspace, update all of our computers, pre-make website pages documenting our build season, and booking/planning our trips down to a written agenda just to name a few.

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

I'm lucky, I don't have to work, my wife supports me...and I'm not in school...and I still get burned out near the end of the FRC season.

I don't know how you guys do it.

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

Oblarg: dealing with burnout is really about setting priorities. Learning how to deal with it is a skill -- one that you'll be able to apply at work as well as with volunteering. In the FRC world, I try to do this:

1. Consider changing your definition of success from "a great robot" to "kids were inspired." There are a lot more opportunities for reward in FRC using the latter criterion.

2. Don't overschedule yourself and the team. Most weeks during the build season, FRC 3081 has 20 hours of meetings, and no one is expected to be at every one. With school and other commitments, those hours beyond 20 in a week have diminishing returns.

We see the same thing at work -- people can handle a couple weeks going well beyond 40 hours, but if you consistently see people working 12 hour days you find that there's a lot of slack in the marginal 20 hours.

3. Schedule breaks. Don't be at every build session.

4. Take care of yourself first. You'll find me at the YMCA a lot in the two weeks prior to the FRC season (also working off those xmas treats).

I'm like Jim in that I'm pretty ready to be done at the end of the build season. But I've learned through work that I feel the same way when a project is coming to an end, so I think of it more as being ready to move on and less about the particular thing I'm working on.

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

You've got to let things go undone. It's a marathon, not a sprint, and chances are it doesn't really matter if those holes are exactly 1.125" apart, or that gusset plate is a little crooked, or that boring bar goes back in exactly the right place. Maybe a student will even notice that it doesn't fit, or that the gusset looks bad, or that they cant' find the boring bar at the next team meeting and learn from the experience!

I definitely struggled with this as a first year mentor. I remember getting pretty upset at a freshman for something really stupid in retrospect (I asked for something, maybe a certain sized drill bit?). After the fact, another mentor said something to the effect of, "Come on man, he doesn't even know what you are asking for!" which was of course the truth.

I was lucky enough to not be in a leadership position, so I could take days off. This was really important to keeping me sane -- and you also discover that when you don't show up the world continues.

It isn't easy, but you've just got to decide what's really important and start letting the less important things end up below the waterline. Focus on the fundamentals, and over time you'll find that students will become more competent and more of those things will end up above the waterline.

The stronger the team, the easier it is to keep your head in the game. If you take some time off I'd strongly recommend coming back and spending a year or two with strongest team in your area. You'll build a network of people that will help keep your head above water in the heart of the build season, and you'll learn way more about mentoring than you could teach yourself.

Tone is really important. If you're really stressed, chances are good you'll come off as a jerk (from personal experience). In my experience, high school kids do not respond well to authoritarian mentoring. Keeping your stress level down by having other mentors to lean on, and not sweating unimportant details can really pay benefits by making the students respond to you much more positively.

I hope that is helpful

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

You've mentioned that your move to grad school means you won't be near the same teams anymore. I'm going to suggest that you consider not mentoring a specific team in your new community. Instead, volunteer at kickoff, your local regional competition, etc. It's a good way to stay involved with the FIRST and FRC community while taking a step back from involving yourself in a full build season.

I'm not saying never mentor a team again - just consider taking a break for a year where you prioritize school and limit FRC involvement to specific events. Working as an event volunteer is still plenty fun and busy!

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

It's easy: as an individual, stop trying to care so much about the competitive aspects of the team. Then find other people who are energetic and enthusiastic about winning. Guide them through the mentoring process. Marriages depend on stuff like this.

Other than that, it's all about preparation: do you have all of your vendor CAD parts locally, have you CAD'ed anything lately, are your tools calibrated, cleaned and maintained, do you have plenty of prototyping materials, etc.

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

OK, there are a lot of great responses to this thread about how to manage your teams time and expectations during a build season. Big Al's advice about prioritizing your school work should be your number 1.

What I see would help you, would come from a deeper reflection on you. Why do you mentor? Who do you mentor for? Is what you are doing mentoring? What are your short term and long term life goals? How does mentoring a FIRST team fit within those goals. I'm sure that there are more questions along this line, that you can form to help you reflect.

I think you need to be spending some time establishing your personal priorities / goals, etc.

Your attribute of personal sacrifice is very noble, but FIRST needs YOU to be successful first.

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

I'll echo what several others have said in this thread - you might want to consider not mentoring a team while you're in grad school. You won't be around the teams you've been with for the past few years, so this is probably going to be the easiest time to take a break and not commit to another team. Grad school is tough and has more stringent requirements, and the amount of time it consumes can be variable and hard to predict in advance, depending on classes, research/labwork (if that's a component of your program), and papers. Not great for build season. It's different for everyone, but it's still probably going to be more difficult to manage with a mentoring schedule thrown into the loop too. (disclaimer: I've never done grad school, but I've seen a lot of friends go through it and struggle with the stress, even after they're dropped any extra-curriculars)

But, that wouldn't mean you have to stop doing FRC. Volunteer! It's not the same as mentoring, but it's less of a time commitment, you still get to see competitions, it's still rewarding, and you'll still be involved.

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

I was also going to suggest that because that is probably going to be what I do next year when I am in college (while maintaining contact with my team, of course.).

It seems like most of your work is with the technical side. But because of your longtime experience in FRC, you might be a valuable mentor for team management and organization. This could be especially beneficial to rookie teams who have not established procedures, rules, schedules etc. yet. You'd be just as helpful (specifically in the offseason, as others have suggested) and probably spend fewer days working during the build season. (Although I can't say that they won't recruit you to help them full-time.)

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

Another way of looking at it is that if you burn out, you will not be very helpful to any team. You will also drive away others who might consider being a mentor but don't want to make the level of sacrifice you are making. I have seen co-workers burn out, and have been on the brink myself. It is not pretty and recovery can take a very long time.

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

Just a moderator note -- I split some discussion about handling student burnout into its own thread: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=140897

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

Thank you all for your replies, they've been very helpful in my reflection over the past week.

A quick note, because my OP may not have been clear:

This coming build season, I will not be a student (graduate, undergraduate, or otherwise) - I graduated at the end of the fall semester, and grad school does not start until next fall, so I'm currently in a brief interstitial period of not having any major commitment. So, I really have two issues - how to preserve my own sanity during the coming build season, and how to determine what involvement (if any) I should have during grad school in future seasons. I am now erring towards the side of "none, unless I somehow find myself with a *lot* of spare time" (which I think is unlikely).

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

Outside of FRC11 I know of at least 2 corporations that no longer support FIRST specifically because they had a cascade of burn out between their own goals and the demands of FRC. They were supporting employee involvement directly. As a courtesy I won't name them on this forum because I honor their previous efforts and still thank them for the contributions they made.

When people burn out at the very minimum it leaves work for other people to do and that alone can cause a cascade. I've experienced this from both sides personally. I think the best thing you can try to do is be honest with your team and yourself. Sometimes burn out can not be avoided but I think if your team is realistic with itself it can be minimized. When you can't avoid it even after you make every attempt you have to make tough choices. The more you lead the more you have to make such choices - that's the price of leadership.

School, family issues and job issues can leave one making tough choices. I take a little different view than Philso above - even if your burn out doesn't hurt you finding more help - it is going to hurt these teams if you are making it too easy to rely on a pool of resources too small. Sometimes people respect things more when they have to work for them. In the end if no one else is willing to step up maybe one should re-evaluate how this commitment fits the community.

The very first time I took a step back from FRC11 I specifically told them I felt it was time to see if it would sink or swim. It was a lot to ask from me to start FRC11 as I finished up my college education and the work to do it drove some serious issues for me. FRC11 still exists 20 years later because other people stood up to shoulder the burden: proving that the community thinks this crazy idea isn't so crazy to absolutely everyone after all. It is more gratifying to me that people continue to filter in to support FRC11/193 than that I am the hero that will be forever obligated. It means to me that I contributed to something that hopefully will survive my ability to support it (either for the ominous fact we all pass eventually or because something more critical interferes).

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

Karthik always says in his "Strategic Design" talk to "build within your means". From this discussion, it appears to me that it not only affects your teams success on the field in the current season but it can also affect your teams future if a team "bites off more than it can chew".

I suspect that we are really on the same page on how someone burning out affects the rest of the team. I have been part of volunteer organizations where the culture was such that only about 2% of the membership would step forward and do the necessary work. Once those people got burnt out, it made it harder to find someone to replace them because those who would normally step forward didn't because they did not want to get burnt out themselves. Usually, they had to get a naive newbie to do the work (for a year or two).

Techhelpbb creating leaders in his team is what makes the team sustainable, not some big one-time donation or some fancy piece of CNC machinery.

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

One thing my mom told me that stuck with me: You're not mentoring for your satisfaction/gain, you're mentoring for the students. If you're giving your students 1/3 of your time/energy, you're not really giving them the best mentor you can be.

I've always been taught its better to whole-arse one thing over half-arsing two things. Maybe take some time to whole-arse school because trying to third-arse school/team/team isn't doing you (or your students) any favors.

I had to stop mentoring while in school because I realized that I was paying a lot of money to get my degree and I wasn't going to be able to be a good mentor AND a good student... so mentoring could wait.

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

I doubt a tool alone will make a team successful because FIRST intentionally set the contest up in such a way that you don't need that. If one reviews the build tools FRC193 uses and FRC11 uses (we are in the same school and mentors can move between teams) you'll quickly note that FRC193 doesn't usually use most of the fancy CNC tools we have. They do just fine without all that. In fact it makes the FRC193 work more accessible to the students of all knowledge levels. That's important because FRC193 members are the first 2 years of school and move up to FRC11 which are the last 2.

On the other hand - if you goal isn't aligned entirely with the competitive angle of FIRST. If your goal is expose your students to skills that do revolve around those tools, then the presence of those tools is much more valid. In those cases the tools matter. In the same way having access to an FRC robot to deeply experiment and test matters.

My goal was always a little more grand than merely winning a FIRST game. When I was a student at that high school there was no FRC. There were rooms full of computers and people were afraid if you touched that stuff you'd break it so they did not encourage you to do so. When I was a student/valedictorian at the same time at the vocational technical school you learned the curriculum but to be honest, at least in Electronics, you never got a lot of apprentice opportunity. There was no sense of community and I knew what that was because I, like my brother, had the opportunity to apprentice with my Father (I've been working since I was 10 years old). I never even got that at the local community college. Sure you had a few select local business that drove those programs but it was a small percentage. If you took those programs the odds were you would be working for those people. No joke - my brother and I took all the same classes till we both got our Associates. My brother ended up working for a very predictable group of companies well past getting his Bachelors. Eventually that was the exact problem. Like a coal miner you entire future was embedded with those opportunities and they paid you pretty low because they had you in all directions. I always viewed this small participation as a direct weakness of the system. It was education to a goal - not always encouragement to excel even beyond that goal. This is where the opportunities those tools represent do matter. Consider this in the context of a small percentage of people doing the work and in the sense of building to the goal of competing versus inspiring something more grand.

This is also where too much tool can be a problem because too much of a tool doesn't teach you to stretch a tool's capability. You end up teaching people that robots look like FRC or any machine that isn't from Haas is too little to be meaningful. VEX proves you can teach many FRC related fundamental concepts cheaper but you still are consuming VEX. So one walks a balance to teach the tools to inspire to go beyond and merely driving consumption.

I think sometimes you need those 'big' donations: time, money or resources. I think there are opportunities where a one time shot in the arm is not just symbolic and shiny but it pays out multiple fold when it is timed correctly. Sometimes you just need to change the balance and this is true in the corporate world as well. On the other hand - if all you are doing is pouring those big donations in then you aren't being effective and maybe you should stop. Good leadership in a team would identify when those big donations are the most effective and make sure they are. Leadership can also destroy the value of these donations entirely. The leadership of some huge enterprises can easily demonstrate how you can burn billions and still deliver absolute junk.

So to say we create leaders in a team and it will be sustainable is not entirely the whole story. When you lead you need to lead in a way that inspires directions that drive values that are attractive in the community of that team. That is why FRC11 has survived 20 years. It has greatly filled a need within Mount Olive High School and the community that has made it grow. When leaders left and when leaders faded the direction still attracted new people to lead. Sure I burned myself out going BIG a few times and I wasn't always satisfied with how it played out. However I honestly don't think if we never went BIG we would be better off - I think we should just learn how to time it correctly so those moments don't burn people out. Once you do get burned out then you have a working example of were the team leadership or the community needs some work. I have seen that 'burn up the 2% kind of leadership' myself in various places but that's not really leadership we want to impart or should encourage.

For example take my interest in making a Makerspace. I burned myself out real good getting that Haas CNC stuff running for FRC11. It was too much tool for the school's need and I never asked for it. I would have been happy with a CNC router table. Instead the leadership got ambitious and went all in on the Haas. It wasn't tooled well. I pulled nearly $10,000 out of my pocket to make that right and I did so with basically no warning. When those machines came in late I warned that it would limit what we could do and honestly it wasn't heeded. The sub-team I led as mentor with the student leader did turn out several professional quality parts. We had the same parts made by professionals and the quality was the same. It was massively expensive. It drove hardship at my job because as fast as we finished one part or another there was something else on the critical path which prevented me from getting back focused entirely on my day work. In the end I had to back down from that level of commitment because it wasn't under control. It still drives value into the community and my contributions remain. I believe in the value of it I just don't believe it can reach it's full value in 6 weeks and to be honest that was what other people seemed to expect. So I set out to remove that time limit by doing it as a separate workflow from the leaderships of: FRC11, FRC193 and Mount Olive High School (also has the added benefit of not being locked to just FRC11/FRC193). In that I hope to remove the factors that burned me out and that limited the return. With that I hope to train other mentors and students that will impart knowledge and leadership back into FRC11/FRC193 and if willing other FRC teams. So I am burned out but I am not burned up. This is not to talk ill of FRC11/FRC193 either. Like stated: they don't need those Haas machines to be competitive but now they have them and one of my goals is to make sure they continue to bring value and inspiration so the unique opportunities they represent are not wasted. To achieve this are the basics of access and commitment but also to inspire people that they can do this.

To my point - I may now be less involved with mentoring CNC and leading any part of it myself for the next 7 weeks for FRC11/FRC193 but in part my contribution to the community is what will make that aspect sustainable. Leadership doesn't always have to be aligned, in fact, sometimes great leadership needs to be a touch disruptive with a vision still compatible with those being led. FRC11 is a 20 year example of leadership that: struggled, fought hard, that went BIG, that sometimes didn't get where it expected and sometimes it burned out but it still delivers on inspiration to the people it serves - hence it sustains. Maybe the stuff we collected along the way wasn't the only thing of value to the team but it is a means to an end and I am certainly not going to suggest to any donor they didn't play a role in leading that way or that their donations didn't help inspire. Especially when other teams walk through our shops and it impresses on them what can be achieved which is something I often hear from them. Maybe they don't need all that stuff to be a competitive FRC team - but they see the opportunities that FRC brought to us and it inspires them to imagine a greater future and all the cool stuff they could do (even when it's just sitting there idle).

In the end maybe that Haas experiment ends up with a new local Makerspace. That's worth something even if it hurt.

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

I'm taking a year off FRC because I noticed that I haven't gotten any new products out the door in my home business since I started mentoring FRC four years ago.

I'm still mentoring our little Vex team on Saturdays only, so I have some involvement, but not the huge time commitment of the FRC build season. I've already made significant progress on shipping a new product!

The other mentors have stepped up, the team has a lot of seniors and a batch of new students, and things are going very well so far. I do plan to drop in on the team now and then during the build season to see how they're doing.

I'll be at a Vex competition during kickoff. That will be strange.

Re: Stress, burnout, and stepping back
 

See you next year, Dave.