Starting new team, need suggestions...

[philso]

Originally Posted by EricWilliams

This, in my opinion, will get you more miles than any of the other many strategic initiatives you'll need to execute on taking on the forming of a new team. It will pay off in spades, however you choose to do it: encourage a non-engineering mentor group, personally invite parents to meetings every chance you get - especially that all important first meeting and every one after that, create a parents only mailing group, ensure there is parental representation in all major decisions, etc. Logistics, organizational sustainability (financial and in terms of student retention), excitement/enthusiasm in the stands - these are just a few of the myriad of challenges that are best solved utilizing an engaged parental support base.

Some parents might say that they "are not engineers" or "are not technical". You can point out that one does not have to be technical or engineers to help with things such as helping to feed the team members, making travel arrangements and fundraising.

[mrnoble]

This is a great question.

My personal and team experience has not been one in which having lots of mentors has been helpful; rather, having one or two dedicated and knowledgeable mentors is much better than pursuing ten who show up sporadically or promise much more than they can deliver.

Parents, students and mentors change a great deal each year. Some years, we have parents with trucks who can haul us everywhere; other years, parents who plan meals make life more pleasant. The inverse is also true (this year, meals are sparse).

I have found that the greatest asset is actually a well-thought out mission statement. For our team, it has helped tremendously as different people come to the team with their individual baggage and assumptions. We are a collaborative group, with adults and students working together to reach solutions. We have had years where adults wanted to take over, and having a clear mission made it easier for some of them to get with our plan, and for us to remove others altogether since they didn't agree. We've also been able to articulate this to parents/sponsors/competitors who look askance at groups like ours where students aren't allowed to flounder while adults stand by smiling and nodding. When they say, "aren't students supposed to come up with all the ideas on their own?", we can point to our mission. This is just one example of how a clear mission has helped us.

Probably the second most helpful thing is a supportive school administration. I have seen firsthand how difficult it is when the school administration doesn't like or trust the team, and it is really destructive. When kids and parents know they are valued for being in FIRST, it makes a real difference in morale.

[Jacob Bendicksen]

I'm on the left coast, so I have absolutely no idea where Galena is in relation to St. Louis, but if it's at all possible you should try to get some prospective sponsors/mentors/students(?) to champs next month. It's been said earlier in this thread, but I think it bears repeating: once people have an idea of what FIRST is, they're way more likely to keep doing it next year.

Building a robot 'just cuz'? Not too many people will stay with the program.

Building a robot that's your entry into a magical world of Cheesy Poofs, Simbots, scholarships, Andy Baker, Segways, and internships? I'm in.

[Bill_B]

I've been thinking a lot about batteries in the last couple of weeks. Do not let the ratio of one battery to one automobile color your thinking on how many you need. I think you need at least four to be reasonably certain you can get decent performance from whatever machine you make. Take care of them by not overworking the one in use just because you're having fun. If you're going to have an hour of practice driving time, don't let any of your four batteries work for more than 15 minutes before getting them hooked up to your charger.

sorry - too detailed? You came to the right place for help with FRC. One of your first responses to an FRC-related question, technical or otherwise, should be "let's look and see what's on C D."

[Tmeziere]

Originally Posted by Bill_B

I've been thinking a lot about batteries in the last couple of weeks. Do not let the ratio of one battery to one automobile color your thinking on how many you need. I think you need at least four to be reasonably certain you can get decent performance from whatever machine you make. Take care of them by not overworking the one in use just because you're having fun. If you're going to have an hour of practice driving time, don't let any of your four batteries work for more than 15 minutes before getting them hooked up to your charger.

sorry - too detailed? You came to the right place for help with FRC. One of your first responses to an FRC-related question, technical or otherwise, should be "let's look and see what's on C D."

So true. The first day at the San Diego regional we did two practice matches. In both of them our batteries where duds. Luckily a couple of veteran teams helped us out and we were working correctly in no time. So always check all of your batteries before arriving at a regional.