[meaubry]

Adult mentors:
How do you help your team? I'm the team co-leader and usually, do many things to help the team, both administrative stuff and technical stuff, such as;
planning and reviewing the budget, participating in the leadership committee meetings where most of the travel type decisions are made, recruit company employees, act as the communication link to the rest of the engineers and company management, and approve spending requests. I lead the brainstorming at kickoff, lead the fabrication and assembly of the robots. I plan the robot build - maintain the schedule and assure the weight requirement is met. Help out with the design of the robot, hold daily lunchtime design/build review meetings during the build cycle, and assist in maintaining the Bill of Materials. I order parts and material needed. I usually work with the drive team - selection and tryouts as well as, practice with them and on the field coaching (sometimes). I am on the Pit team, set up tear down, and help maintain/repair the robot during the events. I work very closely with the team leaders at the school to make sure we are all on the same page regarding our goals and aspirations.

What's your current career? At this time I am leading the implementation of Configuration Management at our division and work closely with all of the business functions but mainly deal with Engineering and Information Technology (IT) departments. I have a MS and BS in Management, but started out going for a BS in Engineering, but then changed my career choice to Secondary Education (Industrial - Drafting, Machine Shop, etc.) Landed a great Design job just before the 2nd to last semester in my senior year and worked in Design/Engineering for many years. While working, I choose to finish up on my education by pursuing a Business degree at night. I had aspirations of managing or starting my own business someday. In fact, I did manage our Design Services group and Prototype Administration group prior to this last assignment. In the evenings (during the off season), I teach class at Baker College in Auburn Hills. I usually teach Mechanical Drawing, CAD, and Design type classes.

Is this related to what you help out with on the team? Yes, I think the things that I do or have done during my career are very related to what I do for our team. I would encourage everyone to give being part of a FIRST team a try, as I tell folks when recruiting at work - the only requirements for participating is 1) you are committed to encouraging students to consider a career in Science and Technology, and 2) you really care about helping students. Everyone has something to offer - theres plenty to do to keep a team going and maintaining a successful program.