Rookie Team Trying to Gain Experience

[mwtidd]

Razer,

I'm not sure what your team's plans are for next weekend, but my team (319) is holding an offseason event on Saturday.

http://www.frc319.com/#!battleofthebay/aboutPage

We're going to have a couple teams with the new control system up there.

We are also going to have a basic bot set up explicitly for rookie teams to compete with. It would probably be a great hands on experience working with it through the event.

Also, are you a student or mentor? I work in Framingham, and live in Allston so Wayland isn't too far out of my way home. If you guys are looking for a hand I'd be happy to help out. I may have to get my CORI certification updated (I mentored the Hopkinton Lego League team a couple years back, but it may have expired since).

Cheers,
Mike

[EricH]

Originally Posted by lineskier

Razer,

I'm not sure what your team's plans are for next weekend, but my team (319) is holding an offseason event on Saturday.

http://www.frc319.com/#!battleofthebay/aboutPage

We're going to have a couple teams with the new control system up there.

We are also going to have a basic bot set up explicitly for rookie teams to compete with. It would probably be a great hands on experience working with it through the event.

Razer, I think your team just got some plans for that weekend. I can't recommend going to an offseason event before your rookie year enough. There's nothing quite like the competition environment. As a bonus, you'll be able to meet up with a bunch of folks who will make it their business to help you guys succeed. Even if the team can't make it as a team, whoever can make it should try to make it.

[kstl99]

Offseason events are great. You do not sound like a rookie but I would bring as many rookies as possible so they can get a clue as to what the competition is all about. There will be around 20 teams that are usually happy to help a new team. You can stop by the 1922 pit and ask for Kevin and I will help where I can and introduce you to some of the people I know.

Have you registered yet? Do you have a team number? Have you signed up for any district events yet? Just curious...

[Jon Stratis]

The best thing you can do right now: search out local teams in your area. Use: http://www3.usfirst.org/whats-going-on

With that, you can find some of your nearest teams and try to get in touch with them. Ask if they are meeting during the fall, and if they are ask if your team could attend a couple of meetings to get an idea of whats going on. Many, many teams out there will jump at the chance to have you come over. They'll take the time to introduce you to all the parts, show you how things get hooked up, and help you get up to speed. If asked by a local team, my team would also box up enough miscellaneous control system parts and motors to build a drivable robot (seriously, it would take us about 5 minutes to pull everything off the shelves and stick it in a box). The benefit of having this relationship will continue on throughout the season - you can go to them for help during the season, maybe use their space/tools a couple of times, and they'll be hugely helpful at your competition.

We've done all of this for local teams before - we have teams in our space all the time (in fact, I'm at a team meeting right now with another team present), we help them out at competition, and we focus on training other teams as much as they want (part of the reason we were chosen to alpha test the new control system).

The best thing you can do is find a local team to mentor you through your first season.