[gurellia53]

Well, its pretty clear that a lot of people have strong opinions on this issue (6 pages in less than a day).

Most of the responses have disagreed with the original post and many have good reasons for this, but the fact is that dissent against these "mentor teams" exists. It obviously does not bother the people in charge of FIRST, but some members of smaller teams (mentors and students alike) lose respect for teams like this.

Its true that these teams can be more successful and more helpful at competitions, but that isn't enough to sway everyone's opinion. Calls for change by people like Depreciation can go ignored, but the truth is is that he is not the only one with this opinion.

There seems to be somewhat of a split in FIRST between people who agree and disagree with mentor-dominated teams. The reason that its not quite so apparent on CD is that everyone who is against these mentor-dominated teams is promptly told that they shouldn't criticize how other teams are run. Often times, this is worded harshly and this person no longer speaks their opinion on this subject. Is this really a good way to deal with people who have this opinion?