[Williane]

Dear Mary, I am new posting replies but I wanted to give you my two cents. It is nice to see how you have been working hard with the students and how much you care for the team. It is a big jump from FLL/FTC to FRC and it is interesting how you fit nicely into the program. You are right in all your concerns but I promise you that if you continue helping things will get better. This first step is always identify the problems and try to find a solution. Reaching to the FRC community is a great way.

You asked if anyone else experienced a similar situation, here is my experience:

“Budget is not an issue with this team, but organization is.” – Maybe that is where the teacher should focus and help the team. It is a full time job to run the business side of the program and bring funds to the team, plus outreach, documentation, travel, and relationship with the school. Looks like you will be a great help in the tech side. That is how we divide our team also, we have a teacher that coaches the business, media, outreach, etc. and I coach the tech area and groups, plus most of the team management like rules, organization, since I have more experience with FRC and time. I have done both in the past, tech and business, and I can say they both take the same time and effort when done well, what looks like your teacher do.
“We are exact opposites.” – When we founded 1510, coming from 955, I was coaching, my husband was the Head Mentor, and my sons were students. We had complete different ideas and goals, it was a blessing. My husband and I spent weeks discussing what the job of a mentor was and we came up with some nice balance that has been working well with our new team 4488. Our Adult, Mentors and Student leaders also don’t agree with each other 100% of the time, as most teams. We talk, we listen, and we respect whatever decision was made as a group. Works great. It is an opportunity for us to teach teamwork by example. Our difference of opinion complete each other, we see other sides that we may have not pay attention before. Our business coach says we are like a puzzle, all pieces fit well together.

“He put off ordering the parts for 3 weeks after kickoff.” – How do you ask him to order parts, by email or in person? We use a Google Drive doc where lead students and mentors can add parts they need. They add the web link, quantity, price, total, who is asking for it, and notes of where it will be used and why we need it. Plus priority shipping. Our Head Mentor or I approve the parts and once list is final we ask the business coach to purchase it. It is very hard for the person purchasing to have emails coming asking to buy parts or having to do it every day. We try to keep the purchase done 2 times a week, sending one single message that the list is ready or when something is urgent. Sometimes we place all items in the cart during our team meeting and call him to pay, this also helps expedite the order and avoid mistakes.

“I spend half the time cleaning up” - Welcome to my world, but if you keep teaching they will learn and notice how cool the room is. It will start to reflect on your pit and robot also. Now it doesn’t matter we worked 12 hours that day, the students still care for every detail of the robot. We have some rules about cleaning and it is highly considered on leadership application. We are of the opinion that there is no small job and everyone should help.

“Again, the teacher is a nice guy, and does other things well, but managing an FRC team does not seem to be his area of expertise.” – Having a teacher supporting the team is the most important thing for a team to succeed. I have coached a team with no school support and met many in the same situation, I would never want to live it again. Teachers are a treasure you need to keep safely. He sounds like a good person, he accepted you as a mentor and has been supporting your decisions. Once you bring other mentors to help you it will be much easier.

Please let me know if you need any help.