[M3NT0R]

Originally Posted by Hot_Copper_Frog

How did you recruit these two new mentors?

They both found me, referred through other people. They were both actively seeking to mentor FIRST teams.

Do they have FIRST/FRC experience outside of this year?

They are both alumni

Were they made aware of what sort of time commitment and responsibilities would be expected of them?

Probably not as clearly as I should have. They are on distribution lists, and the schedule is circulated to them as often as it is to parents and students, which was generally bi-weekly.

Are these mentors capable (read: trained/experienced in engineering design/electrical design/programming/CAD) of making major design decisions?

Seeing as I don't consider myself highly capable, I would say they are equivalently if not more capable, at least when it comes to mechanical design. I'm fairly competent and can definitely handle programming myself. Well...at least I perceive them to be capable, I don't have any proof but just based on their backgrounds.

A lot of adults simply don't have the time or free mental/emotional energy to deal with that but want to help anyway.

I think this is what exactly what I'm dealing with. People that want to help but can't. The solution to my problem lies to how to convince or get these adults to help.

If you don't make expectations crystal clear, then in all likelihood you will be met with inconsistent attendance.

Fair enough...but I don't want to scare them off....

You need to assign roles and responsibilities.

I think this combined with the above may help. Thinking about it, I jump into the meeting and after an initial team meeting, run off to help whatever student, and this leaves the other mentors to kind of pick-up..whatever. I guess it's easier for me to jump in, and not as easy for them. So...I think we've come a bit full circle with OP. How can I get these mentors to get out of their shell? Maybe having them and I work together with a group of students, so they can feed off of whatever I'm doing?

You may not have connections, but guess who does? The parents of your students.

This is a fantastic idea. Unfortunately, all my parent meetings have turned up a wee-bit empty (about 20% of parents show up). A very different socioeconomic background than what I'm used to (inner-city, public school).

Originally Posted by nuclearnerd

[*]Borrow from an existing FRC team (thank you 4039)

How did this work out? Were mentors actually willing to go to two different teams during build season?

[*]Check your local college for FRC alumns - there may even be an FRC club, or your local FIRST org can help locate alumns. Students have the most time and energy to spare

I was thinking the same thing after posting this. However, I'm a bit wary of overcommitting a college student. I would be for this if we had a solid group of mentors and were looking for additional part-time mentors, but I don't know about asking a college student to be a full-time mentor. I think very few would be willing/capable. And at a young age sometimes you think you can do more than you can take on....case and point, me running this team solo right now.

[*]Ask all of the shop / science / tech teachers in your school or neighbouring schools / colleges. Some of them may already be involved in student competitions, and may be willing to switch / merge

The tech teacher at the school mentors two FTC team, the other tech and math teacher mentor FLL teams. It's been tough to ask them to meet with the FRC team.

[*]Put a letter out to your state Professional Engineers association - Retirees are the best if you can find some

This is a good idea....a really good idea. Thank you.

[*]If there's a "hacker space" in your community, visit and ask around. Maybe prepare a "pitch" ahead of time, or invite people to coffee and youtube.

another good idea. It would also be a good opportunity for our team to "demo" and I can try to get some mentors out of it.

[*]As Megan mentioned - parents!

My team had a huge parent group as well, but I think it's the different socioeconomic environment. I've sent several e-mails to get food organized etc, but nothing ends up happening, and I can't leave kids hungry during meetings so I end up doing it myself. Do you have any tips on how to incentivize parents?

The harder part of your question is getting mentors to come often....is to recruit as many "part timers" as you can. Try to get everyone to commit to some minimum amount of attendance / responsibility

I think Megan's point about structure will enable this to be a reality. It's hard to be a part timer if you don't see a specific part of the team to work on.


Thank you guys so much. My takeaways:

More dedication from mentors

• Organize your team and mentors - have expectations for different mentor roles

Finding new mentors:

• Professional Engineers Association
• Hackerspace