I would just like to say that I too at one point thought the same way ("elite teams are mentor built", "They're all rich (I mean just look at that paint job
that turns out to be just spraypaint!)" and ect.) I'm fairly certain that my entire team thought the same way. And we did horrible year after year after year.
With our lead mentor leaving this past year and a new guy coming in that had no experience with first, I somewhat took over in the summer and tried to turn this around not only for my team but for myself. We met in the local library over the summer, running workshops, writing letters to sponsors, and working our butts off to get somewhere. We managed to nab an incredible sponsor with amazing machining resources (they even donate some materials!) that we could never dream of having before. Now that the season is over we find ourselves with our first
blue banner.
The students even turned around from "Its not our fault we stink, everyone else is just too good" to "These are the problems within our team, lets fix them". Right now we're working with the
school board to improve our situation in the school (an actual robot room w/ machines!) and addressing team structure issues.
Its amazing what a little good ol' fashioned
hard work and
dedication can accomplish. Hats off, 341. Keep it up. You're an inspiration to the rest of us, its a shame some people don't take advantage of that.