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Unread 26-01-2016, 16:23
jgerstein jgerstein is offline
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FRC #1257 (Parallel Universe)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
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Re: What to do when mentors are leading the team in the wrong direction?

You really have two separate questions here. There's a lot of good advice here, but here's my input as well.

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Doctor View Post
Last year our team was made up of a bunch of upperclassmen, and this year we lost almost all of them, leaving only 4 people who have been on the team more than 2 years. This has made it increasingly difficult to compete with two of our mentors (unnamed) who seem increasingly intent on running the team themselves. I mean, shouldn't the team be student-led?
Your team should be run in a way that works well for your team. That will depend on the nature of your team as well as your goals, and the exact balance of leadership between students and mentors is likely to change a bit from year to year. Over the years, we've come to an arrangement that works for us, in which the mentors provide guidance to the student leaders, and help them lead the rest of the team. The amount of guidance depends on the leadership team that year, but even the most capable students can benefit from the experience of the mentors. You said yourself that you lost most of your experienced members - you're likely to be in a position in which more guidance from the mentors is appropriate.

I've had experience with a team pushing to be 100% student-led as a reaction to students feeling that the previous season had been too mentor-driven. I'd like to caution you against that - it was not a good experience for anybody on the team, particularly not the students. With that said, I don't know your team, and I've only heard one side of your story, so I'm not in a position to judge how things are going on your team.

My recommendation for handling the situation with your mentors would be to sit down and have a talk with your lead mentor about the concerns you've expressed here. If you don't feel comfortable having this discussion with them, pick a mentor you are comfortable talking with. It's important to stay calm and to remember that your mentors want this to be a good experience for everyone. Explain the problems as you see them, and be prepared to listen as well, not just talk.

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Doctor View Post
Take for example the issue of robot add-ons. Our original design (we actually did it in cad this year!) called for a 6wd chassis short enough to go under the low bar with the ability to pick up balls with an attachment at the front end. However, these two mentors got the idea in their heads that we should have an arm on the front to open door and gate-based defenses, because going over 5 isn't enough apparently? They also decided it would be a good idea to prototype an arm to climb the tower. Neither of these were part of our original design and strategy.

The worst part is that these mentors are leading several students in prototyping these add-ons, which leaves us with no fabricators to build our frame. In my opinion, the frame is kinda important, don't you think?
I'm not really in a position to comment on your strategy or design, aside from saying that the frame is indeed important. My best recommendation would be to sit down with your mentors and ask if your team can do a review of how well you're addressing the design requirements for the strategy you're working towards.
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