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Originally Posted by M3NT0R
How did this work out? Were mentors actually willing to go to two different teams during build season?
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The details are a bit complicated to sum up in one line, but in short MakeShift made it a priority to support a rookie team, so they asked several of their mentors to work for 5406 instead. It was a tough choice to make! Giving up mentors made it harder for 4039, and going from an established team to a rookie team was hard for us, but it was a very "GP" thing to do.
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Originally Posted by M3NT0R
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.
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Are you kidding, our college students are some of our most valuable mentors! Ours have all been through FRC before, and know the drill. They've got flexible schedules, a huge energy reserve, and really good repor with the students (who are only a few years younger). We tell them not to prioritize the robot over their school, but otherwise leave it to them to balance their academic commitments.
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Originally Posted by M3NT0R
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.
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Keep up the soft push. Maybe the tech teacher would like to graduate from FTC to the big bots?
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Originally Posted by M3NT0R
This is a good idea....a really good idea. Thank you.
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.
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My pleasure!
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Originally Posted by M3NT0R
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?
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We might be lucky to have some better off parents. Our group started off slow - we hosted a couple of "mandatory parent meetings", and forced a build season dinner signup sheet around
Things changed pretty quickly though. The excitement of competition, and the influence of a couple of *really* eager parents has given everyone a boost. They've been organizing meals for the team on their own lately, and it's awesome!
The most important thing I can suggest is to keep parents in the loop about the team progress, and to treat them as team members. Host mandatory parent meetings. Send out a newsletter at least weekly. Get them signed up to Basecamp. Talk to the NEMO group for more ideas:
http://www.firstnemo.org/
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Originally Posted by M3NT0R
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.
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Yep. I know it's super hard to "mentor the mentors", but not everyone has the abilities or interest to figure out how to contribute on their own. You have to structure the team and the work so that everyone has a bit of ownership. It pays to do your homework. Come up with some work plans before each meeting. Review each plan with the mentors / student leaders at the beginning of each meeting so that afterwards they feel confident to grab a couple of students and go work independently. Be available yourself to answer questions as they come up, and to monitor everyone's progress. A quick debrief after each meeting is also super useful for adjusting the next meeting plan.
Good luck! PM me if I can help further.