[Trey178]

Dear Mr. magnets,

Upon reading your story I could not help but draw some similarities to the team I came from (and now mentor). Now I want to share my perspective as well.

My high school sophomore year ('03-'04) was the season the team finally moved out of our founding sponsor's basement and into a new build space. A decade later our shop has a mass of hand tools, 2 drill presses, a vertical and horizontal band saw, a chop saw, a circular saw (for our practice field), a vice, an air powered rivet gun and a compressor to operate it.

Though what we can create in shop sounds very limited, most of the time it's all we ever need! If it's not enough we have the support of our engineering mentors who have access to better equipment at work. As an FRC alumnus my experience has shown me that it's not what tools you have, it's how well you use them. Our last 2 drive bases were nothing but 1"x1" square aluminum tubing held together by pop rivets. Heck our 6-wheel tank drive from last season was one of/the best drive train I have seen from our students.

It also sounds like the students you mentor understand how important the kit bot can be. With a drive base assembled and running in less than a day, they can put their focus on the other features of their machine. The coaches and adult mentors of the Enforcers agree, if students learn and apply the engineering process, it won't matter how well your robot performs in the end. They'll have gained experience to use for future seasons and beyond. Seeing this process in action today is a big reason why I stick around to mentor the team that gave me so much valued wisdom.

In a nutshell, if the students put forth the effort, it will always be worth the failures. Make sure they keep at it.