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Unread 22-01-2015, 14:36
jee7s jee7s is offline
Texan FIRSTer, ex-frc2789, ex-frc41
AKA: Jeffrey Erickson
FRC #6357
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Rookie Year: 1997
Location: Dripping Springs, TX
Posts: 319
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Re: Texas Registration 2015

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Blake View Post
But, what is _your_ model of what the team landscape looks like? You can't manage what you can't measure, right?
I don't try to manage it. That's not my job. I just try to support it and help those who want my help.

Regarding the measurement, quite simply, I don't try to measure it. I think that it is frankly impossible to apply rigid seemlingly objective measures to something so subjective as organizations of people and the relationships between them when they do not have identical goals and aspirations. To do so judges the "success" of a team based on what is collectively (or subjectively) thought to be "success." I'm very Ayn Rand on this point: The smallest minority is the individual, and I know each individual FRC team has their own goals for what they consider success. That's the great part about FRC, it's so big, so challenging, and so complicated that you get to (and rightly should) make your own definition for success.

Do I look at the teams with successful track records and rows of blue banners and hope to learn about how to make a better robot? Sure. But if I were to look at my own team's win-loss-tie record and judge them, I wouldn't be elated. Even if I tried to judge on field performance aside from WLT, I could certainly make arguments that we weren't a success because we didn't play every aspect of the game.

But, I can look at my alumni who visit every now and again and see how the team has impacted the career they have chosen. I've seen them come back and freeze in awe at our facilities today that we didn't have when they were on the team. I can look at our track record of teaching our students skills. There are all too many students I have dealt with who didn't know how to use a drill properly who now know a fair amount about design and fabrication. Are they engineers yet? No, but that's not what I'm after. I'm just glad that they got off on the right foot into a career that I hope they will find rewarding. (BTW, that career isn't always a STEM career.)

I can look at my team's contributions to the local FRC community and to the Manor and Austin communities. Just yesterday, I was modifying parts for one of our sponsors on our "new" 15 year old Haas Mill. We've been to the F1 track for events. We've been to Capitol Hill in DC, and members of our team testified before the Texas Legislature. We've gone from a portable classroom to a 3000 square foot shop and classroom facility. And, we did it without needing to pass a special bond measure. We've inspired at team (4610) to take on the FRC challenge fully, and they've inspired a team (5503) to do the same. Do you have any idea how involved 2789 is in TRR and the Austin Kickoff? All those social events in 2011, 2012, and 2013, the planning committee, the workshops, the Field Elements. Oh, and the President of the United States visited us. We didn't visit him. He visited us.

Do we have a Chairman's Award or Engineering Inspiration Award to show for this? No. Does that mean we didn't do it? No. Are we a success? I think so.

But, these are things I know because I'm on the team. There's more beyond what I'm mentioning here, too. However, I'm often surprised at teams, some relatively seasoned, who don't know half of what I just mentioned about 2789. I, therefore, as an honest thinker must conclude that what I know about a team from the outside is a mere fraction of what they are on the inside. For me, it's superficial and unfair to judge another team based on what I see. And for them to judge my team without walking in our shoes is equally bad, IMHO.
__________________

2013 Alamo Regional Woodie Flowers Finalist Award Winner
2012 Texas Robot Roundup Volunteer of the Year
Texas Robot Roundup Planning Committee, 2012-present
FRC 6357 Mentor, 2016-
FRC 2789 Mentor, 2009-2016 -- 2 Golds, 2 Silvers, 8 Regional Elimination Appearances

FRC 41 Mentor 2007-2009
FLL Mentor 2006
FRC 619 Mentor 2002
FRC 41 Student 1998-2000

Last edited by jee7s : 22-01-2015 at 14:47.