[mathking]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

Inconsistent mentoring philosophies drive students away (we lost at least four a few years ago on this). They don't have to be identical, but they can't be too disparate. If you don't have a common purpose, you don't have a team.

I do agree with this. Think of inconsistent in terms of incompatible. So if it is a question of a warm, fuzzy and outgoing vs. gruff and quiet approach, no, not all the mentors need to or should be the same. If it is a question of "I design the robot and tell the students exactly what to do" vs. "the students design the robot with guidance and feedback from the mentor" then it can cause a lot of problems on a team. I am not arguing here about which of these is a better approach, but we have had problems like this in the past when new mentors joined our team expecting one when we were doing the other. Mostly the mentors adapted to the team culture. But not always, and when they didn't it caused them, me and the students a lot of stress.

So if/when you meet with the other mentors you need to identify which differences are differences in style that you can live with or even celebrate and which are differences in philosophy of operation that you can't.