Alumni Mentoring a rookie team... advice?

[nicholsjj]

If I were going to help a rookie team that had no prior mentor expirence I would first try and convince them to build the Kit bot in steroids. I would want the team to make that the priority first. The only rules I would focus on at first are any specific drive train rules (frame size, bumper rules, etc.). My next step would be to walk the team through the mounting of the electronics board. Make sure to program the robot as well. Hopefully these steps can be done by the end of week one. With that out of the way the students and mentors can have a closer idea of what an FRC robot looks like. I would then reevaluate the game and find the simplest solution for the game. The videos from the 3 days builds will be useful here. Decided on a simple strategy and design that can be done by the end of week three, yes THAT Simple. With that done your students should have plenty of time for the ever important driver practice. I would look for a team that has a field set up with carpet for this or try and get carpet(assuming no modified field surfaces ). Remember the two best rookie robot performances over the last two years came from two teams that could not shoot. They fit a strategy and built very simple machine es. Good Luck this year.

[KathieK]

There are some resources in the NEMO website that might help also. Www.first.nemo.org
If you can't meet before kickoff, can you email? Or otherwise communicate? You can be explaining the time commitment by sending out a meeting schedule. If that scares some people away, then they may not have been helpful to the team anyway... I see it as being realistic in communicating expectations. Same for financial commitments.
I think one of your biggest priorities will be time management (project management). If you stay focused on meeting your deadlines, you will have to use the KISS principle this rookie year. Find out what those deadlines need to be and communicate them very visibly to the team.

[Nikki Haux]

Originally Posted by KathieK

If you can't meet before kickoff, can you email? Or otherwise communicate? You can be explaining the time commitment by sending out a meeting schedule. If that scares some people away, then they may not have been helpful to the team anyway... I see it as being realistic in communicating expectations.

This is a really good idea. While I am not the mentor in charge of the team, I think I am one of the only ones involved with prior FRC experience, so this will be something I will have to speak with the head coach with. And I definitely agree that those who are scared may not be helpful anyway. I have had some experience with that on my other team.

[Nikki Haux]

Originally Posted by nicholsjj

If I were going to help a rookie team that had no prior mentor expirence I would first try and convince them to build the Kit bot in steroids. I would want the team to make that the priority first. The only rules I would focus on at first are any specific drive train rules (frame size, bumper rules, etc.).

Thank you for this advice. For me personally, this will be the biggest change I think. The team I was on in high school had enough experience and resources, both for the students and mentors, that we never used the kit bot for much in the final design. This is really good advice, and I do appreciate it.