The 6 Week Build Season and 'Mentor Burnout'

[MrForbes]

I don't have a job, and I get burned out at 6 weeks. Our students do too, so do the teachers. We treat the 6 week build as a 6 week build, when it's over we are done with robots until the competition. Yet we managed to seed first and win the Arizona regional this year, so we might be considered an "elite" team in AZ (which is a relatively small pond).

I've also been involved in another robotics competition in Arizona, the National Underwater Robotics Challenge. This event kicks off on Halloween, and the event is held in June. There is plenty of time to do lots of work for it, whenever you want. Yet most teams show up at the competition with a non-working robot. I think this is the result of procrastination, caused by the way too long build season.

If anyone at FIRST is paying attention to this, please put me in the "keep the 6 week build and get rid of the 30 lbs allowance" camp.