[popnbrown]

First of all, thank you for willing to mentor. It is not the easiest role to fill on a team, and wanting to jump back in as a mentor is very awesome to hear. I myself could not get rid of FIRST when I went to college and ended up starting/mentoring a FRC team in my junior year.

Originally Posted by Skyehawk

So my question: As a mentor am I overstepping my bounds with the development of the scouting system?

Maybe, maybe not. While I'm not the greatest fan of the "every team is different" answer, this is a difficult question to be definitive about without knowing fully your team's dynamic. I think you will have to answer this question yourself (or maybe my other answers will help you).

I will say the fact that you're asking this and thinking about it to me shows that you are likely to not overstep bounds or at least you will realize it. In my mind, a good sign of a good mentor.

Originally Posted by Skyehawk

Should I let my team set themselves up for potential failure with paper (and no good way to tabulate the data like is available with the electronic)?

The short answer to this is "kinda...".

Long answer, I personally am a big believer of learning to fail. Not only is the feeling of success after a failure more gratifying but what you can learn can be much deeper. I've got numerous examples including this task at work I'm taking a break from because I've spent 2 days on it....

However, not everyone takes failure well, and while failure has a lot to offer, success captivates better, ie. failure is boring, success is fricking awesome. It is a difficult line to maintain as a mentor.

In this situation, I personally would engage the students in a discussion, and go over pros/cons of both. Potentially, ask them about ones they may miss and ultimately let them choose.

Not sure if you've had a discussion, but I think that's the appropriate action here. If that's happened, and they've still decided. Then I would let them potentially fail.

Originally Posted by Skyehawk

Any other advice for a 1st/2nd year mentor?

In no particular order, and in my very very short time as a mentor:

- Transitioning: It sounds like you've matured to be a mentor, but it's really important to make a mental transition. Everyone stresses this and having recently kinda gone through this transition, I can't stress it enough. I will admit I haven't fully made the transition yet, as I'm still a die-hard 1403 fan.

- Be Someone to Lean On: On the note about failure, I've always felt that a mentor is someone to lean on. As a mentor, you can be more than just a supervisor or a technical database. You can be someone to lean on and someone to rely on. If and when a student you're mentoring fails, pick them up, make them laugh, do whatever it takes to get them back to working on the problem.

- Build Better People: FIRST offers soo many opportunities beyond and within just building a robot. Take advantage of that to mentor your students to become better people. Keep an eye on small things that you can change in order to help build better people. This is my end goal, and if it is yours as well, always remember it.

- Step Back: Actively seek to step back. While your goal is to mentor as much as possible, you can mentor a lot by knowing when to step back. A simple example, over the course of the last 6 weeks, I used to hold one of the wrenches as a student was tightening a bolt, now he can tighten a bolt completely by himself.

- Keep a WIDE open mind: Some students can come up with the craziest ideas, try them, or if you don't have time, make sure you remember it and try them when time is not an issue. You might be surprised when something goes much better than you played it out..which leads me to...

- Remember, you are a student as well: Regardless of your age, you are a student. I don't mean that you specifically as a college student. I mean, continue to learn. I've learned as much if not more as a mentor than as a student. I know a lot of things about real life now like whoa-money-can-run-out, and not getting in legal trouble and fill-up-gas-before-a-meeting. But seriously, take this as an opportunity to make yourself a better person. Reach out to more people, ask more questions like this, network like crazy at FIRST events.

Most importantly, don't forget.
- Have FUN! and embarrass the crap out of all your students, when they have to say you're their mentor. Get them to embarrass the crap out of themselves.

Originally Posted by Skyehawk

Thanks for reading/replying.

Thank you for willing to be conscious about this. It's a step in the right direction to be a mentor if these are the types of questions you are asking yourself.