Quote:
Originally Posted by dmoody92
I raised my hand and voiced my opinion that if we decide to pick the Auger that everyone who didn't work on the team would feel totally alienated because they had no help in making it. I said that I would rather lose miserbly with the bot I made, then win it all with a bot I had no help on.
I didn't make this just to air out dirty laundry and for you guys to back me up. I want to know how you guys handle back up ideas, do you just pick an idea and go with it or do you make two robots and pick the best one. Another big issue with this is that they have split our total funds between these two robots. What do you guys think?
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[Edit] Now that I see this post, it's really long and intimidating looking. I'm really, really sorry about that- I have a tendency to spew out a lot more words than I expect.[/Edit]
These two thoughts both show a very high level of maturity and understanding. I applaud you for that, and I hope you can continue to voice your concerns reasonably to your team- you have a lot of good insight.
While I think your team probably should have addressed these concerns when it formed and at the beginning on the build season, it is definitely better to deal with them now than to let the repercussions of the disagreements manifest further and cause excess turmoil. You don't want that kind of tension to stay in your team for long. You should have a team meeting, and discuss the concern you have brought up in the first paragraph I highlighted in the above quote. Teamwork is important- you have to have your whole team in this together. If your team made a decision
as a team, your team should honor that and move forward together, even if individuals think there is potential in other options. (I bolded "as a team" because that statement is very important- if the decision did not involve the whole team, then that's the step where you have to rethink things. Those who were left out of the decision-making process are going to feel the same way you do now.)
The fact that it is your lead mentor who lead the rebellion group is also important. Our mentors have much more engineering experience than us, and a lot of insight from their experiences throughout life. They might see an idea that they believe is the optimal solution, and it is understandable why they would think it is a good idea to bring the team to work on this. However, there is one flaw with this logic- this is not what
FIRST is about. FRC is a program for high school students, designed to inspire and teach many lessons that will apply throughout life. The mentors are there to be that- mentors. While they can help enormously with their knowledge and insight, they should not be taking over the reigns to the extent that they are suffocating the creativity and the learning of the students. Perhaps you need to give a gentle reminder that this experience is designed to let you, the students, flourish through the knowledge you obtain through your hard work- the successes and the failures alike. While the robot design your team voted on may not be "the optimal design" in the eyes of your mentors, it is yours- yours to build as a team, yours to learn from as a team. You are absolutely right that you will get a lot more out of losing with a bot that is truly yours than winning with one that was just handed to you.
To reiterate- you should definitely hold a team meeting where you can voice your concerns and discuss these problems with the team. Make sure it is open to the whole team and you are not excluding people by, say, meeting during volleyball practice when everyone on the "auger" team is also on the volleyball team. Consider holding a special meeting outside of build time and sending everyone an e-mail explaining why it is important that they come. The high-energy, high-stress period of the build season can be really frustrating, so remember to remain calm and explain everything rationally during the meeting- your goal is to resolve conflict, not to create more of it.
Also, now that I have explained all of this, I realize I never directly answered your final questions. Ultimately, it makes sense to pick one design and go with it. Building multiple prototypes in the early stages (weeks 1&2) is a good idea to decide what to go with, but like you said, building two full robots is a waste of time and money, and will split your team in half. You should definitely decide on one idea early on and go with it, with your whole team as one. Anyway, good luck!