[Derek Bessette]

First off , I would like to thank everyone for their praise, comments, suggestions and questions. I think our three team collaboration is somewhat unique in the FIRST community. I welcome all constructive criticism and thank those who have not made assumptions and attacked the way we do things here at NiagaraFIRST.org.

I'm actually quite happy this thread has become a moderated debate over collaboration. This type of conversation is very healthy for the FIRST community and very helpful to us at NiagaraFIRST.org. We are always looking for ways to make the experience for our student's better.

I think Karthik has answered most of the questions regarding how we manage our teams. I'm just going to add a few comments regarding the advantages and disadvantages of our collaboration.

I'm the lead GM mentor for team 1114. I have been involved with this team from the beginning. As Karthik said, as a single team I think we would be stronger than as a triplet. As a team we have been able to tap into a lot of resources in the Niagara area to get a lot of our metal and some parts donated as well as getting some of our harder machining done. These advantages are now passed on to three teams instead of one. Westlane and Fort Erie are starting to find their own resources which may help them break away from the collaboration eventually.

One advantage of a collaboration is with these resources. When Westlane finds someone to sponsor the decals for their robot, they get decals for all of the robot. When Fort Erie finds someone to get spare batteries donated, we all get free batteries. This same advantage is present with machining and fabricating. Westlane has a CNC lathe, Simcoe does not. Simcoe bought a CNC mill this year to match the one Westlane has had for some time. The Westlane Lead teacher mentor was able to come to Simcoe to help our expert grade 9 CNC mill programmer/operator. Each school is better at making some things compared to others. We use these strengths to help all of our teams succeed.

We also gain an advantage by learning from each others mistakes and improvements. We can pass lessons learned to each of the teams. Of course on the same note, when a design doesn't work out we usually end up with a lot of useless parts that took a long time to make. I challenge someone to print off our first teaser pic and try to find all of those parts on any of the robots. At least 75% of that stuff is now obsolete.

One of the biggest disadvantages is keeping the team organized and on track. We have to be very careful to document all of our drawings correctly and keep everyone up to date on changes. Although this problem hurts us as a team it is a very good learning experience for the kids. They learn how important it is to have good drawings and to communicate any changes.

Another disadvantage is the politics. There are a lot more people on three teams compared to on one. There are more personalities to deal with and a lot of different opinions on what the robot would look like and do. The brainstorming session at the start of the season helps with this a lot. We are able to get together and vote on the best ideas and always come up with a robot that incorporates ideas from all teams.

Also we won a lot more technical award last year than we had in the past. I believe this has to do with the fact that we had 3 identical robots. How do you pick which one to give it to?

By far the biggest advantage is that we can get to more students with less money and people. We can build three inspirational robots with fewer mentors and less money. A lot of people ask: Why not merge into one team with one robot? or Why not build 3 lesser quality robots?

For the first question I would answer: "Because, there is nothing more inspiring than competing with a robot that you built." Each school can get more involved with their own robot at competition because we are dealing with three smaller groups. I would find it very difficult to find productive and inspiring things to do for 80 kids with only one robot.

For the second robot I would say: "Competitive robots are inspirational robots." We could build three different robots. But they would all be less competitive and well engineered. I think our students are plenty inspired when the see what they've built, even though there are two more just like it.

Andy - Great points! I agree that having triplets in a regional might make it somewhat less interesting to watch. However, I will point out that it is definitely not less interesting for the kids that get to play the game with their own competitive robot. Each team has tremendous pride in their robot and they fight very hard, especially when they are against one of the other triplets. If I thought we had the time and resources to be able to put out three quality robots then we could have the best of both worlds. At some point I hope we can get there.

You also asked when we thought it gets out of control. I think we are at the limit now. I would find it very difficult to go to four teams with identical robots. We are getting another school in the area started with some of our kit materials that we haven't used over the years. They are going to build a robot using this years rules for the off-season competition in Wonderland. This will give them a chance to learn the heartaches of FIRST at a much more relaxed pace. They will have a lot of the advantages of being in NiagaraFIRST without having the same robot. We'll see how it works out.

I want to again thank everyone for turning this thread around. I understand how teams might be confused, disappointed, and even upset at the way we do things. I hope everyone can stay constructive in their criticism.

One thing you'll notice about our team. We are always improving. Whether it's the robot or the way we manage our team. Thanks to those out there who are trying to help us get better.

If anyone has any more question regarding our collaboration please feel free to ask. Try and be specific or you might end up with another novel like this one!


I almost forgot the biggest advantage of all!

Three times as many people get to hear me and Karthik sing at 2 am!

Karthik - Did you ever know that your my hero? You are the wind beneath my wings!