Contention
 

I fully understand the effort, emotion and concern of all that have posted to this thread.

To Team 810 and all concerned, it sounds like you need to do some soul-searching and heal some wounds. You apparently have some very concerned and dedicated individuals (you are lucky) and perhaps a few "loose-cannons" and/or misunderstandings and it is not working out too well. Be kind, be considerate and remember "purity of thought and deed". Talk it out, even if you have to do it here. Maybe it is primarily a lack of communication.

For what it's worth, there were several times this season and last that I felt like I was underappreciated and treated inconsiderately, despite great effort and concern for the team. However, I realize that people have different styles and temperments and they don't always appreciate the consequences of their immediate behavior. At minimum, you do your best, learn from it and move on. Even better if you can hang in there and make a difference.

From what I've seen, this year...lots of people are only involved because they want to win. When it gets brought up on these forums, all it does is lead to fights, bickering, finger pointing, and insulting "anonymous teams"...it's times like these when we should all stop whining, and look back to the acronym: F.I.R.S.T. For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, not "let's win!" or "it's your fault!" and the occasional "this is what you did wrong, we are better than you because..."...let us all get along! Enjoy your experience with FIRST while you still have it. Don't try to tell others what to do. Instead, focus your efforts on exemplifying the values of gracious professionalism in yourself!

Last year my daughter worked at the machine shop on the robot, co-drove at all the competitions, and this year became captain.

However amidst her excellent experience there were awful fights and tension.

One family from each rival school met and resolved to keep the team going and change our team for the better.

You are only in control of yourself. You may or not make a difference in the people around you. There aren't guarantees. We couldn't know in advance that what we were doing would work. It's a process, not a destination. Life's a risk, and there aren't easy final answers.

Just to let everyone know, 810 isn't ready to kill Meli W., or anyone else here :p. In fact, I'd like to thank Melissa for kicking the student leaders of 810 into gear, for the first time in 2 years. If anything, this thread was the best thing to happen to 810, ever.

So, once again, thank you Melissa, because I think you just finally made 810 work. It took two years, but I believe now we can finally go and have some fun :D.

Bleh. I hate internal strife and that is what went on at 564 toward the end of the build. It is such a long story. Basically the mentor wanting to get the robot done yelled at the only person who really did pneumatics to get the cylinder mounted and attached. Of course she wanted to mount it the way she wanted to but we only had two days left and he really wanted to get the thing done. Now we have that to do at the regional and she is annoyed that he yelled at her to hurry up and get that thing done.

thnk u ian w.
 

thank u ian. that is sooo tru. this tread has brought the team to gether. now i think that the team can actually have fun together in the pits.
this made me(and i hope the rest of my team)relize the fact that FIRST isnt about winng but about making freinds and learnig.
now, lets go and get bak to wat FIRST is all about...having fun
joe bennett

SuperDanman...Wow!
 

Ahh, Dan, you bring up a number of sticky points. When it comes to student effort and mentor behavior, I have mixed opinions. Being a mentor, I have sometimes see an almost total lack of concern on the part of the student members. I have also seen mentors behaving like B-heads. So it goes both ways. This is natural, unfortunately. I suppose I am am infected with this on occasion. Ask my sons.

All I have to say is, "If you are a mentor, back off and lead by example. Ask yourself, "Why would anyone want to be like me?" Then be honest. These young people are capable. If you are a student team member, ask yourself "What did I learn or do to help the team out, today?". Are you really doing what you are capable of? These are pretty simple questions. They sometimes have rather complicated answers, unfortunately.

BTW, expulsion doesn't work because the more reasonable people usually beg off before the crazies do. It's just the nature of the beast. Don't fret. Just hang in there and learn. We are here for you.

Re: SuperDanman...Wow!
 

Ain't that the truth.

A peer years ago taught me to continue to behave appropriately and the difficult person WILL escalate their behavior to continue to attempt to throw you off. If you can continue to behave appropriately, the difficult person will eventually either leave or change their behavior.

I hope that the FIRST community will see this and not hold grudges or revenge against this team. They don't deserve it... On the contrary, they need all the helping hands, smiles, and pats on the back that they can get. Please do not let past events be your basis to judge them - they deserve just as much gracious professionalism as any other team.

Team #810 - Although you cannot change the past, you sure can change the future. I am happy to hear that you are reformed and I am sure you will be great role models later on for FIRST. Hold your heads up high, rethink your ways, and show all of us what your team can do. Good luck.

Re: Re: SuperDanman...Wow!
 

I had to deal with a corporate executive at a company I worked at years ago. The guy was totally unreasonable (I mean REALLY). At one point, I decided he wasn't worth worrying about, if I wanted to keep my sanity. At every meeting and encounter, I pretended that he was a ghost. An image. I was polite, respected authority and all that. He just did not exist as far as I was concerned. It drove him nuts, and he realized that he no longer had any power over me. The moral of the story is to be your own person. Integrity will take you far.

(I also had a professor at Va Tech years ago who had this same type of experience with a professor when she was a grad student - she told the guy in no uncertain terms what he could do with his attitude and he respected her thereafter...hmmm)

Re: Re: Re: SuperDanman...Wow!
 

*chuckle* I had two similar experiences that I agonized over at the time, that taught me how to deal with difficult people and circumstances since then with more equanimity.

I created several very successful programs. A woman was so jealous she tried and tried to destroy them. I agonized and chose not to do anything about her. My programs continued to be successful, and she eventually went away.

2nd incident I was working analyzing records and indexing them for Yucca Mountain Project in Vegas. A new boss was best friends with a co-worker who always hated me for some unknown reason. When the new boss came on, they did an assessment of the dept and discovered I was always doing triple the quota, and that difficult woman was doing 1/4th of the quota. It made her hate me more. For three years she tried and tried to get me in trouble. It never worked. I remember the last time. I was marched into the office, the boss said, "She says you're talking about her!" Truly confused I looked around and saw the woman cowering in the corner. I asked, "What are you talking about?"

That boss eventually had a reluctant respect for me. Frankly I never had any for her. I did always treat her cordially however. She too was eventually gone.

omg guys named dan rule mayb?

Well instead of studying for my art history final I decided to read this entire thread (wow that was long) and send a few PMs here and there and maybe I'll feel resolved once I post so I can go back to work.

I definitely do not think there is a downward spiral of loss of gracious professionalism among first times. If you think about it, FIRST almost puts students in a corporation setting where we fundraise, think up ideas, design, build, compete, and so much more. Even adults have a really hard doing all of this without conflict. Now we have teenagers who already have a hard enough time coping with the drama of high school, friends, getting into college, hormones, etc etc. Yet, we still manage to cope and work with a team on a goal. I really don't think we give ourselves enough credit or appreciate how fortunate we are. It's definitely a mixed blessing having to grow up faster when we are faced with dilemmas but think about how good it is in the long run. Before we even enter into the workforce we'll know better communication, leadership, and teamwork skills because of FIRST if we keep the right attitude.

There lies the little fact in our society that we tend to harp on the negative. Look at the news, all we see are the horrible things going on instead of all of the accomplishments. Therefore, simply because we only hear about the times when people did not exude gracious professionalism does not mean that it is the dominating attitude around the country. My own personal mantra when I was dealing with hardships has always been focus on the positive but don't forget to learn from the negative and then move on.

I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason so I think that not only can the people involved in 810 can a learn a lot from this thread but we can all get a perspective check too.

This is getting wierder by the minute...
 

Yeah, people are strange.... Some don't know when to back off, some are reluctant to jump in. I just hope we can somewhat self-sustaining and keep the community intact. After all, we do have to keep all of us geeks together! Where else are we gonna go?

Have a good night and a better tomorrow.

Gracious professionalism is like a smile. You can have big smiles, little smiles and some smiles that are so bright, it brings joy to anyone who appreciates them. No matter how big a smile is though, there are some out there who know nothing but frowns. Although we can't force these people to smile, maybe one day they will look around at all the smiles that surround them... and smile too.

You can't worry too much about it, just do you part and smile as wide as you can :D