[mrnoble]

This is a great question.

My personal and team experience has not been one in which having lots of mentors has been helpful; rather, having one or two dedicated and knowledgeable mentors is much better than pursuing ten who show up sporadically or promise much more than they can deliver.

Parents, students and mentors change a great deal each year. Some years, we have parents with trucks who can haul us everywhere; other years, parents who plan meals make life more pleasant. The inverse is also true (this year, meals are sparse).

I have found that the greatest asset is actually a well-thought out mission statement. For our team, it has helped tremendously as different people come to the team with their individual baggage and assumptions. We are a collaborative group, with adults and students working together to reach solutions. We have had years where adults wanted to take over, and having a clear mission made it easier for some of them to get with our plan, and for us to remove others altogether since they didn't agree. We've also been able to articulate this to parents/sponsors/competitors who look askance at groups like ours where students aren't allowed to flounder while adults stand by smiling and nodding. When they say, "aren't students supposed to come up with all the ideas on their own?", we can point to our mission. This is just one example of how a clear mission has helped us.

Probably the second most helpful thing is a supportive school administration. I have seen firsthand how difficult it is when the school administration doesn't like or trust the team, and it is really destructive. When kids and parents know they are valued for being in FIRST, it makes a real difference in morale.