[ghansel]

My post was not clear enough (hey, for 11:30 at night...).

You say "We universally agree, and we should, that Inspiration is the only thing that matters in this organization." I agree completely and to contest this statement would be ridiculous because it's the second letter of FIRST.

I think, however, that it needs to be clarified. I think something like "We universally agree, and we should, that Inspiration is the only thing that matters to this organization and to every team leader." is more descriptive of the situation. Not necessarily that exactly, but it helps me illustrate my point. FIRST exists to inspire teenagers to pursue careers in science and technology... we all know this. But in that statement is a blindness to the sheer multitude of reasons that students join a FIRST program or found a FIRST program (forgive me, I have no personal experience with a school founding a FIRST team). In many lucky schools, the robotics team is an accredited course which gives the students time to do robotics stuff during school hours. In such a case, they might be motivated to join by a guidance counselor or a parent. Or they might join to look good to a prospective college. In other teams, the student might join just out of curiosity. In other cases, a student might join because he or she already knows they want a career in engineering, and robotics is the only outlet (such that it is) for their talent. Or a singer might join because the people on the robotics team are fun to be around, and she can do some PR work, despite having no interest in the robot itself (friend of mine). Whatever the dominant reason may be in a team (and this will be different in every team) the leader must adjust the way the team is run and the degree to which technical mentors are involved to best motivate, please, and inspire everyone on the team. That is the fundamental reason there is no correct amount of technical mentor involvement. Shame I only made it clear the second time through.

As to my team role of "engineer". You are not the first person to have been confused by that, but you are one of the people (perhaps the only one) who were tactful enough to ask without immediately demanding that I change it - on the grounds that "engineer" unambiguously means "adult technical mentor" or "professional engineer". Thank you. I am a highschool student on Team 19. By no means do I claim to be an engineer of any kind in real life. There are those my age who do; I am not one of them. But when school ends each day in January, February, and March, and I walk into the team meeting, or regional, I am walking into the fantasy of FIRST and into my "team role" of an engineer.

Thanks, I hope this clears something up. I hope to meet you (as well as many other people on these boards), because I'm a much kinder person in real life.

George Hansel