Its interesting to see the range of levels here. I used to work for Harris when I ran 1511, and they are truly an incredible sponsor...
Quote:
Originally Posted by sandiegodan
Mentors,
Do they have an allowance of time off to go to team meetings?
Do they offer incentives to those who volunteer?
Are you assigned to the task as part of your job? If they do, how does that work? Do you get time off? Extra pay?
Does your company help you with travel expenses for regionals or the championship?
Do they off other incentives like a volunteer lunch or dinner or some kind of appreciation celebration?
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1511's team meetings were mostly after work hours (6pm or later), but there were a few times where there were demonstrations or meetings that I or other mentors would need to attend, and although it varied by manager, the company was very supportive. Most weeks we had so much work to do that we would just make it up in that week at other times. In the case that we were busy/unable to make it up, we were allowed to take Personal Time (for which Harris had unlimited - though everyone used it within reason).
While I didn't technically get "paid" for running 1511, for several years it was actually on my goals & performance review. They recognized it as incredibly beneficial to the company and as part of their "corporate responsibility" so I always got "credit" for my leadership of the team. Again, there wasn't a budget for hours to spend on it, but I flexed my time in all sorts of ways... some days for competition prep I could spend 75% of my day doing FIRST work, but in general it evened out as I often worked 60hrs most weeks and traveled a lot. But it was nice that no one was micromanaging my time. As long as I could meet company deadlines and get my job done, I was free to do what I needed for FIRST.
Harris is a very generous sponsor. We got plenty of funding to not only run the team, but also to fund the travel for all of the mentors involved (including non-Harris employees). So all of our trips were paid for. In addition, for competitions each of us got one to two days "off" (based somewhat on level of effort/who needed to travel early with the team), marked as Personal Time to attend the competitions.
Not to be overlooked was their donation of shop time and materials that they give to the team every year. We end up a bit at the mercy of current work, but the fact that they allow their machinists to work on our parts and get us plenty of them was a huge leap in our productivity. We even brought the robot in to show the guys in 2008 just before we shipped it, as they were so instrumental in helping us get some really impressive parts made.
There is also plenty of company recognition for the mentors. We were often recognized in the weekly email newsletter or monthly company newsletter. The trophies were on display on the executive floor. And every year they had a luncheon to recognize all of the mentors with the Harris senior staff (non-Harris ones invited) and when corporate funding allowed (most years), the Harris mentors received small bonuses & recognition certificates.
Some other little things included that they had a system where you could track your volunteer hours, and those who did would get a pin and certificate, and I believe they were building that up to be more. They also worked into our signed funding request that we would be allowed to do fundraisers onsite, so the first year we sold hexbugs we sold cases and case of them at Harris! Our carwashes and other fundraisers get advertised in their newsletters, and we could post fliers around the company. Additionally a lot of the administrative assistants would help us with everything from packing our patron drive folders to doing the submissions for our mastercards monthly and helping us with printing for documents for our competitions.
For me, the benefit was huge... I felt like my name was known everywhere in the company. The president and VPs knew me by name & face and often said hi to me in the hallways. One of the stories I've told before, that I think clearly echo's Harris's support is from one of our midyear meetings. Our President was talking about the company, corporate outreach etc etc. He said "And the Robotics team did great this year!!..." and elaborated on our awards. He went into something else and then started up with "And the other weekend I was in the grocery store... dressed down, but I had a Harris Tshirt on. This lady stopped me and said "Oh, do you work at Harris??" I said of course. The lady asked "Oh do you know Kim O'Toole?? She does great things with that robotics team!!!"... and gushed about our team... Then she turned around and asked "So what do YOU do at Harris?""... He of course laughed and said he was the President. As he told this story I was simultaneously mortified and shrinking down in my chair, but also incredibly proud that not only had we garnered this amount of respect for the "
Harris Robotics Team", but our president had enough of a sense of humor to recount the story to the entire company.
Above all else when I've mentioned Harris's sponsorship to others, I say that really, they just "get it". We were fortunate that the Chief of Engineering Finance had been involved in FIRST with Harris back around 96, so he knew the program and its benefits. And while it took a little bit of work to build the partnership that exists today, they really have been great. To me it was ironic that it never mattered to them how well we did or what awards we won, they were just happy that we were helping students get interested in STEM careers... yet 1511 is the most successful team I have ever been involved in.
I'm still learning the ropes with my new employer, but they push us to have "an external footprint", for which FIRST seems to qualify, and they allow us to take up to 16 hours off at a time that we can make up within a period of time.