Phone Policy
 

Hi All!

I am a new mentor and actually one of the 2 directors of FRC 1646 Precision Guessworks. I love my students and they're awesome and are already most of the way done with Chairman's and a robot rebuild. They recently had a lock in and it was a great experience for team building and productivity. During this lock in, we took their phones and they didn't have them until their parents got them. They were extremely productive and now that they've been meeting since their lock in, they're still productive, but I noticed that they use their phones while working which I can't help but think slows them down a bit. I know they don't have their phones during school, so I really don't want to be that mentor, but at the same time I'm just wondering what other teams have in place for this kind of thing.

Thanks!

Re: Phone Policy
 

Hey there

I am a student on team 2232.

Currently our policy is to not be on your phone/other technology (laptops, iPads, etc) unless it is needed for the task at hand. If you are sitting on your phone for 90% of the meetings, you really shouldn't be there.

Re: Phone Policy
 

I'm from a generation before cellphones. Most students are not using their phones for team tasks, but for ***book, whatevergram, texting and such: This is how the millennial generation communicates with each other.

We mustn't take away this essential (for them) thing, but do them a service by teaching them responsible use. They inherently understand there's a time & place, but it needs to be said that FRC time is not one of those places, with valid exceptions.

Multitasking is a myth.

Re: Phone Policy
 

If we are not keeping them too busy to waste time in this fashion then we, as mentors, have to bear some of the responsibility. I keep a few tedious, non time critical jobs in reserve for the inevitable pauses when steps 6, 7, 8 in the work flow are pending as the team doing steps 3, 4, 5 labors.

T. Wolter

Re: Phone Policy
 

We enforce "no earbuds" policy, and no phone use except for the task at hand, or to coordinate with family pickups and other emergencies. We encourage (but do not enforce) students and mentors to check their phones in to the same pocket they check their goggles out of. (We have a pocket and pair of goggles for each team member, plus some guest pockets.)

Re: Phone Policy
 

I've never really noticed that members were using phones while they were supposed to be working, but we definitely have to deal with the members that come in with an aversion to work. I would try and fix that by giving them enough work I knew they didn't want to do that soon they would find something productive they were actually interested in so that I couldn't give them more work. (I'm only slightly joking.) And if we're taking a slight break, or if one member steps away for a bit to check their phone, I don't care if they're arranging a ride with their parents or checking Facebook or twiddling their virtual thumbs. The people that want to work do so.

Re: Phone Policy
 

We don't have a phone policy. Usually it isn't a big deal that they're off-task with their phone, it's usually something else anyways or they're just the kids that's always off-task.

Our school is a 1:1 tech school so most of our students are accustomed to the idea that tech can go both ways.

Honestly, something our team is trying to do is.. use less chairs. Especially our programmers. We've found that offering students places to sit allows them to slack off more, so only certain areas have seats (business, for example) while engineering areas have no seats and we're working on moving programming to some standing desks. The off-task kids don't want to STAND around, they want to SIT around. So we're taking away that option.

Re: Phone Policy
 

People on our team work. People who don't work aren't on our team. The phone can be a tool or a toy. Students on our team use it as a tool. Students who use it as a toy are not on our team.

Re: Phone Policy
 

I love the cranky old guy essence of this post. It made me smile.

Re: Phone Policy
 

We have no phone policy other then if you bring a charger in the room everyone can use it.

When students are at robotics they are there because they want to in their free time. If they want to check instagram while working on something quick it doesn't bother me and general if people are motivated enough to show up they are motivated enough to work. I'm actually appalled that teams have phone policies and think it's quite ridiculous. Many schools have dropped their phone policies all together with quite a few being quite relaxed about them.

A phone policy to me is just a good way to not retain members. I'm not sure I would have stayed in robotics and gotten hooked if when I showed up they made me put my phone away.

Re: Phone Policy
 

Cell phones can be a distraction in a shop, and lead to dangerous situations... For us, no cell phone use at all in the shop, and otherwise they can only use them for coordinating rides (normally with parents, but sometimes siblings or other). At one point we had a " phone basket" everyone would put their phone in when they got to the space, but we've stopped doing this, and the students have been responsible.

Re: Phone Policy
 

Don't be that mentor. Remembering back to when I was a student I was more than happy to put my phone away if I was asked to do something productive instead of doing whatever I was doing on my phone 99% of the time. No 14-18 year old wants to be told to put there phone away just because an adult says so. They just dealt with that for 6 hours earlier in the day. Also remember that these are students not machines. 15 minutes spent on a phone every once and a while is a necessary part of life and is potentially necessary for them to be in the shop in the first place.

This pretty much describes how my teams treat phones. They are often used to look up stuff like drill and tap charts, vexpro part numbers, COTS part dimensions and old robot photos amungst other uses. People that want to sit on Facebook all day generally opt to do so from the comfort of there own home and not a noisy and hot machine shop. People that want to spend there day working on the robot or helping out with our phone based scouting system come into the shop with both of those tasks requiring the occasional use of cell phones.

Re: Phone Policy
 

We don't have a cell phone policy. It might have something to do with the fact that we tend to meet places with remarkably bad cell coverage. It's so bad that if people need to make a call they will wander outside to get a better signal.

Re: Phone Policy
 

I am stuck tethered to my phone for my job.
If I do not check if fairly frequently it can cost someone's life savings except on a rare day truely off.
Even when I am changing jobs like now, I am still responsible for some things that are serious matters.

That said phones do not belong distracting you while operating machines.

I think it is well within the duty of a team to teach our students how to be productive with this ever present distraction if we can.

Re: Phone Policy
 

We haven't written the no-phone policy but we have warned members that if they aren't working, rules will be implemented and FRC will become more like school (no fun). We are trying to cultivate their maturity - help them on that path to being adults. Do your work because it needs to be done, not because there is someone standing over your shoulder. I don't have enough bandwidth to herd a team of cats.

So far, its working. But there are a few stray cats in the bunch. We encourage the senior members to watch out for the junior members when this starts happening to draw them back on task. As long as it stays fun, the members want to be there and they look forward to the next meeting.

When it starts feeling like school.... even I don't want to be there.