What Contributes the Most to a Team's Success?

[EricH]

I voted for "Parents". If parents are involved with the team, their students are probably going to be dedicated, and the parents can do some things that mentors may not be able to do due to regulations. A dedicated group of parental boosters, while it doesn't show up as much as the mentors and students with their heads stuck in the robot, can be as vital or more vital than the rest of the categories.

[SuburBot]

Dedicated students. More specifically, students WHO GET THE POINT OF FIRST.

I bet that the majority of people who didn't answer students are involved with a team that already has good students. If you were on a team without them, you might vote differently.

Because unless participating students are capable of wanting to learn, wanting to have fun, and wanting to help others do the same, nothing gets done. The final robot is something nobody learned from, built almost completely by mentors who are worried about having nothing to compete with. Enthusiastic mentors and students with ideas and motivation get tired of trying to get the majority of students to care about what they're trying to say. They also get tired of trying to design or build a robot or component while everyone else plays online video games, watches pirated movies, or play cards and board games. Some of the non-contributors become trolls, and tell dedicated and interested participants that their ideas suck while doing nothing themselves.

Being the majority, the lazy people and trolls stay. A very frustrated and fed up dedicated minority abandons all hope and stops showing up.

I'm unfortunately speaking from my experience this year and last year. Most interested and experienced mentors and some dedicated students have stopped showing showing up, and recently, I have too (although I will be at the regional competition on the last day to meet some successful teams).

I honestly don't know why most people on my team joined. Because they literally couldn't care less about Gracious Professionalism, the engineering experience, or anything else FIRST tries to promote. The only logical explanation for them being there is the school's free internet connection or that it would look good on their college application. And the only reason they were accepted into an remained on the team was because we needed to prove we had above a certain number of students to be sponsored this year, so there were no restrictions on joining or staying.

For the reasons described above, the robotics team isn't taken very seriously at all at my school, and students that should be the most interested in FRC don't join. It's a death spiral.

CONCLUSION: If you don't have enough students that want to learn, have fun, or participate, everyone who does will pack up and leave, and the team will implode. This is why an FRC team's rookie year is the most important. It sets the standard.

[Garret]

My team is 100% student everything. And I still think that mentors are the most important factor. Without mentors a team will end up like mine. having literally no continuity between seasons, essentially being a rookie every season.

Mentors are also what guide the students. Even if the students build the robots completely, they need a mentor to show them how to make a robot or do anything. You simply cannot learn what is never taught. A few students are self-starters and who can learn on there own, however FIRST is about inspiring the kids who wouldn't be able to do it on there own. Thus for a team to truly be a success it needs mentors.

Students come and leave but mentors and teachers stay with the team. My team's history goes back only until 2008, and that is only because me and one other student have been on it that long, otherwise it goes back until 2009, and then 2010 once those students graduate. Thankfully, we have mentors now, so hopefully team 691 will be around for a while after me and the other student leaders leave.

A great student member exists for at most 5-6 years, a mentor doesn't have a set amount of time with the team.

[LightWaves1636]

I voted "other" because honestly is making FRC 3320 pull a 180 this year and become so impressive now is because they meet all year round.

Each student has been training and self-teaching LabVIEW, Inventor, or 3ds Max Design since June 2010. The team has the dedicated students, mentors who care, and everything else listed in the choices but I think what really gave 3320 the change this year is that they've had the seat time to hone their skills off-season.

[J93Wagner]

Looking back, around May/June 2010, N.A.C. Team 93 had a group discussion about the next step to take. And as part of it we were asked what in or on the team was the most important. We came up with a list about 10-15 items long. What wasn't included on that list was the robot because it isn't the robot that is important. It's the people, because FIRST isn't about building robots, it's about building people by using robots as a fun and exciting tool. What I'm seeing here is that that is very much true because it isn't anything like the practice robots or facilities that are overwhelmingly important. It's the people.

[Robby Unruh]

Experienced Mentors, hands down... whether they admit or not, all FRC teams would be nowhere without 'em.

[KrazyCarl92]

Given that the mission of FIRST is to inspire students to become leaders in science and technology, the measure of success for a team has to be measured by how well they inspire their students and other teams students. Therefore, I would have to say that mentors are the most important aspect of success because they are the ones actively inspiring the students, giving them something to be excited about and showing them how to make something as complex as an FRC robot a fun thing to build and compete with. Of course winning helps inspire students, so that is a part of a team's success, but it isn't the whole picture. Mentors are also the integral part in establishing the professional setting for students to interact with professional engineers to overcome a difficult challenge together.

[JaneYoung]

The strength of Plan B. The strength of Plan B depends on all the other facets of the team and how well-developed they are and in tune with flexibility, adjustment, and change they are.

Examples:
- What is the backup plan to a lead mentor who cannot remain committed to the build/competition season?

- What is the backup plan to the sudden withdrawal of sponsorship from a sponsor who has stood by the team through the year(s) but can no longer do so?

- What is the backup plan to a sudden increase in team membership or a sudden decrease in team membership?

- What is the backup plan to a facility change/cancellation or closing?

- What is the strength and organized support of the parents as a group?

- What is the strength of the team that can carry it from sudden uncharted waters into smooth sailing?

The answers to these questions can help you determine the team's success and achievements and set goals for garnering more.

Jane

Money and the ability to know what to do with it. (Other)

[IKE]

A clear definition of "success" for their team, and a solid plan for what it takes to be successful. A solid plan includes an assessment of goals, stretch goals, actions required to make those goals, and the assets required to take those actions.
That and Caffienated beverage of choice.

[thefro526]

Personally, I believe one mentor that truly "gets it" is the most important part to a "successful" team.

Then again, I consider a "successful" team any team that manages to compete year after year.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by SuburBot

I bet that the majority of people who didn't answer students are involved with a team that already has good students.

Yes, I can see that now. I guess we do take our good students for granted.

Originally Posted by SuburBot

Being the majority, the lazy people and trolls stay. A very frustrated and fed up dedicated minority abandons all hope and stops showing up.

I understand your limitations regarding team size and sponsorship, but frankly, we do not tolerate "lazy people and trolls" on our team. I have no problem challenging those kind of students to get active - or asking them to leave. We're not a babysitting service, or free food.

Students need to earn their way to Regionals, and non-contributors are informed of this very early in the season. Yes, we did lose 20% of the team since Kickoff, but guess which end of the performance curve decided to stop showing up?

Any student can be given a task, even if it's just sweeping the floors or taking out the trash. Games of any type - except 5th Gear - are not permitted at all. Sit around enough, even the student leaders will get on your case. (Exception: If you're doing homework. Health, Grades, Robot - in that order).

[Garret]

I bet that the majority of people who didn't answer students are involved with a team that already has good students.

I will still say, that a student can only be as good as what they have been taught. (Most) Students cannot design, build, program, and test a robot just using what they are taught in school.

My team has been lucky enough this year to have a 4 mentors who show up to most meetings. At these meetings we average about 20-30 students, in the past we averaged 10-15. Those students are all dedicated and hardworking, but they do not always know what the next step is, or how to make a certain part, or how to wire this or that. Our Mentors provide our students with the tools (knowledge) necessary for them to implement their ideas into the robot, without them this would just be about "building" rather than actual engineering.

I understand how a team cannot exist without students, but just existing does not always mean true success for a team. For a team to have the greatest impact possible on its students it needs to have those dedicated/experienced mentors to to give those dedicated students the ability to turn their own dedication into a finished product.

This is just my opinion though.

[WarpSpeed10]

Why is there no 'All of the Above' answer? I think that all of those different factors are necessary to a team's success.

[Jstack14]

If we stricly are talking robot i said facilities. Not because its the most important thing for first, but i think its the most important thing for a succesfull consistant robot. NOt just facilities though, someone who knows how to and can train others to use it (whether that be mentor or student). Our school finally got a metal shop and our robot should be better then ever because we could acuratley machine parts and create the robot we deisgned. Though mentors and students are far more important to first, there will always be more mentors or students when current ones leave (well i hope so atleast, they aren't expendable but somehow there always seems to be somebody). So in my opinon, and based on looking at many incredible robotos who year after year create outstanding robots, facilities are pivitoal to a ROBOT's succes, FIRST as a whole is a different story.

p.s. as for a robot, i define sucess as continualy increasing preformance each year ultimatley leading up to consistanytly being a top robot. For my team we still are on the journey up so making an allinace and whening a qulaification match to me would be success for our robot.