Mentor involvement

[EricH]

All I'm going to say on the first part of the question/statement is this:

"Too much" mentor involvement is something that needs to be dealt with on a team by team basis. Different teams have different situations regarding mentors. Therefore, one team's "too much" may be another team's "too little" and vice versa. Just for reference, I have been unable to find any rule restricting mentor involvement to anything less than 100% in FRC game manuals, while FIRST's mission statement specifies "mentor-based programs" as one of their methods. Team methodology varies, of course, and I do not necessarily support teams doing 100% mentor builds, but I do not oppose them for having "too much" involvement.



Now, as to the rest of the question: In my opinion, students should be involved in filling out paperwork and planning travel and the like. They should have an input into travel especially. However, a mentor should have the final say in those--fill out your paperwork properly, for one, and for another, help make sure you're choosing a hotel for "correct" reasons. Also, more than likely a mentor would be the one paying for or arranging payment for travel. (Again, highly team-dependent, but a lot of people tend to have a rather dim view of high schoolers making sound financial decisions. Just a general thing you can pick up if you're observant enough.)