Go to Post I am a firm believer that there is no model that can be transplanted/copied from one team to another and have the same level of success. There just isn't a formula for it. The mindset you should have is: "I know I have made a positive impact on my community". - tim-tim [more]
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Unread 22-01-2015, 15:06
Michael Blake's Avatar
Michael Blake Michael Blake is offline
Head Coach
VRC #15842 (Texas Titans)
Team Role: Leadership
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Rookie Year: 2010
Location: Helotes, TX
Posts: 445
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Re: Texas Registration 2015

Quote:
Originally Posted by jee7s View Post
I don't try to manage it. That's not my job. I just try to support it and help those who want my help.

Regarding the measurement, quite simply, I don't try to measure it. I think that it is frankly impossible to apply rigid seemlingly objective measures to something so subjective as organizations of people and the relationships between them when they do not have identical goals and aspirations. To do so judges the "success" of a team based on what is collectively (or subjectively) thought to be "success." I'm very Ayn Rand on this point: The smallest minority is the individual, and I know each individual FRC team has their own goals for what they consider success. That's the great part about FRC, it's so big, so challenging, and so complicated that you get to (and rightly should) make your own definition for success.

Do I look at the teams with successful track records and rows of blue banners and hope to learn about how to make a better robot? Sure. But if I were to look at my own team's win-loss-tie record and judge them, I wouldn't be elated. Even if I tried to judge on field performance aside from WLT, I could certainly make arguments that we weren't a success because we didn't play every aspect of the game.

But, I can look at my alumni who visit every now and again and see how the team has impacted the career they have chosen. I've seen them come back and freeze in awe at our facilities today that we didn't have when they were on the team. I can look at our track record of teaching our students skills. There are all too many students I have dealt with who didn't know how to use a drill properly who now know a fair amount about design and fabrication. Are they engineers yet? No, but that's not what I'm after. I'm just glad that they got off on the right foot into a career that I hope they will find rewarding. (BTW, that career isn't always a STEM career.)

I can look at my team's contributions to the local FRC community and to the Manor and Austin communities. Just yesterday, I was modifying parts for one of our sponsors on our "new" 15 year old Haas Mill. We've been to the F1 track for events. We've been to Capitol Hill in DC, and members of our team testified before the Texas Legislature. We've gone from a portable classroom to a 3000 square foot shop and classroom facility. And, we did it without needing to pass a special bond measure. We've inspired at team (4610) to take on the FRC challenge fully, and they've inspired a team (5503) to do the same. Do you have any idea how involved 2789 is in TRR and the Austin Kickoff? All those social events in 2011, 2012, and 2013, the planning committee, the workshops, the Field Elements. Oh, and the President of the United States visited us. We didn't visit him. He visited us.

Do we have a Chairman's Award or Engineering Inspiration Award to show for this? No. Does that mean we didn't do it? No. Are we a success? I think so.

But, these are things I know because I'm on the team. There's more beyond what I'm mentioning here, too. However, I'm often surprised at teams, some relatively seasoned, who don't know half of what I just mentioned about 2789. I, therefore, as an honest thinker must conclude that what I know about a team from the outside is a mere fraction of what they are on the inside. For me, it's superficial and unfair to judge another team based on what I see. And for them to judge my team without walking in our shoes is equally bad, IMHO.
Jeffrey... that's _awesome_ info about 2789, I didn't know that about your team!

So in my way of thinking I'd put 2789 as a Type-A team [UPDATED/changed to Type-B per Bobby Garcia's post below] - "A - Teams that are a _program_ with reliable and continual support and funding. Same as football and marching band."

And "A" teams have a lot of latitude as to what their activities and purpose for existence can be--hence the entire spectrum of team personalities that exist in these A program teams.

I'd _love_ 3481 to be a Type-A and to see what our personality would settle into, and we're incrementally moving there, but the bottom-line we're still Type-B - "B - Teams that exist because at least one adult _wills it_ to exist."

--Michael Blake
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"Retired Insurance Guy"

Link to me on this new fangled-thingy called The Linkedin and help make me popular, or at least appear to be... ;-)
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- President / Founder - San Antonio Competition Robotics Alliance - SACRA 501(c)(3) nonprofit (2012-present)
- Executive Director - Sports-Competition Robotics of Texas Excellence - SCRATE (2016-present)
- Former-Head Coach / Founder - FRC 3481 - Bronc Botz (2011-2016) // C++ Beta Test Team (2012 to 2016)
- Former-Lead Coach (2013-2016) Former-Head Coach (2009-2012) / Co-Founder - FTC 4008 - Bronc Botz (2009-2016) and FTC 4602 - Bronc Botz (2011-2016) and FTC 6976 - Bronc Botz-Nano for middle-schoolers (2013-2016)
- Co-Founder w/Matt Blake - VEX VRC 3481z - Wonder Botz (2011) [for Physically or Mentally Challenged Teens] (2011-2012)

Last edited by Michael Blake : 22-01-2015 at 15:58.
 


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