Problems with overbearing mentors

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Martian,
There are a few things I have learned while hanging out here. The first is every team is different. They vary in the way they run things, the way the mentors participate, who builds the robot and who provides inspiration. The second is there are always two sides to every event.
I know there are a lot of teams out there where the sponsor engineers and professionals, work on the team and are held to team success as part of their job. That sometime causes friction on the team. It certainly can't help in design decisions and team management. Communication may help so that students and mentors alike know the motivation behind the actions.
I can tell you that I want to win as much as any student on the team. Sorry, it is the goal we are trying to achieve with all this work. I also know, my role is to provide inspiration, guidance, help, support. Sometimes those are in conflict, I am only human, it is a struggle. So I ask my students to help me with that. I tell them their most useful tool is an elbow. If I am doing something they want to do, use it! We believe that working along side our students is the best. We teach, show by example and then step back when they are capable of the task at hand. If you think our robot is mentor built or designed, you would be wrong. Ask our students what they have done on the robot and they will gladly tell you, show you and even help you achieve similar results.
Chief Delphi is a great tool for both adult and student team mates. They can come and see how other teams handle difficult situations and they can ask questions and receive answers to assist them. I will gladly answer questions via PM if they would like. We all want your students to have a great time while in this program.