[sergioCorral842]

Originally Posted by jrw

Why not? If you join a football team there are certain expectations about your commitment - you don't get to skip every training session and expect to play in the grand final.

Everyone has to make decisions about what is important to them - and joining a robotics team means it has to be important enough for you to meet the expectations that the team has of its members (whatever they might be) - and this might mean it needs to be important enough for you to make sacrifices elsewhere. IMHO one of the foundations of a team is that team members need to be able to rely on one another to actually turn up so that work can be done. Turning up every now and then when you don't have a better offer is unfair to everyone else (and pretty rude if you ask me). "I'll come and hang out with you guys if I can't find something better to do..."

Why should mentors give up their time to help young people who might not even turn up?

I agree 100%. Most of our members had to give up other clubs/sports to commit to robotics, including myself. If you do not show up, you should not get to go to the competition.