[cameron.lynn]

Right now the biggest problems are communication and going to talk to people to ask for what we want. Our team has members from seven different high schools, so we can't just put something in the morning announcements. We rely heavily on email. Last year I ended up emailing people a lot I the time, so this year when our head mentor said he didn't want to do that, I volunteered since I had already been doing that. He gave me the information for the official email account and I began to correspond with team members about meetings. At the next meeting, our former head mentor asked if I had the list of new recruits and insisted I give it to our new head mentor so the contact list could be updated. I told him that the list was at home and it would be no trouble for me to update the contacts, and I was immediately informed that this was my a job for me, even though our new head mentor wasn't involved last year and wouldn't know who to remove from the list (seniors that graduated, people that moved, etc.).
In addition, a few of us have been trying to begin an FTC or FLL team at one of the county middle schools, so we would have a good feeder program. A big point that was made to me was that I had to ask the school principal, which I agreed with completely. When I said I could stop by any day after school to talk to him, our slightly overbearing mentor said that was a job for mentors. I was quick to agree that having someone older than me (I'm 17, a senior) would probably be in my best interest, but when I asked if I could be there since I have all the plans written down and I'm well versed in the benefits of beginning a program, I was told I might be invited. I understand the benefit of having an adult there, but I also feel that since us students are pushing for it we need to be there, in addition to we need to learn and practice defending what we want to someone who doesn't know much about it.
These are kind of small problems, but I'm a little worried if they're already trying to limit what we can do it will only get worse as the season progresses. I also understand that my immediate involvement may be clouding my judgement as to what's really happening, but a few of my teammates have expressed similar concerns.