New rookie team

[EDesbiens]

Originally Posted by evanperryg

If you want to start your own team, there's nothing stopping you besides the negative comments you'll get here. Don't let someone's bad attitude keep you from reaching your goals.

[...]

What you're doing sounds awesome. It's daring and adventurous. Keep me updated, and I'd be happy to help in any way I can.

Thank you for this (I had a jump scare when the video starded... hahahaha)

I'm currently working on finding sponsors... I have a list of 50 of them to contact in my region.

I have connections with existing teams in my region and out of it, I'm talking to them often and I try to get a bit of support from them

For the team image, I don't really know what to do haha And, you say it's hard to be different in the first season but this will be my fourth... So I have a few ideas I'd like to try (even if my budget is low )

Thank you again!

[North Sailor]

Originally Posted by EDesbiens

I don't know... Maybe I'm doing an error, maybe not... I have many ideas in mind to make this work both during the build season and in competition. And you are right, there is no I in team... There is one in équipe though, the french translation

I think that it's not because I'm the only student working on the robot that there can't be anyone else supporting... You see, a student from Ontario manifested his interest toward my projects and wants to help me brainstorming and building a strategy... I can't understand why you guys don't want me to give it a try... FIRST is about new things, it's about challenge, it's about helping others and learning...

Not discouraging you from trying something new. I am however suggesting that based on the goals you have outlined, if you made this a local STEM non-profit rather than a competitive team, you'd probably find you could make an even bigger impact in the FIRST community.

(I believe I in French is Je? Which is not in equipe. So the sentiment still stands )

[EDesbiens]

Originally Posted by Kevin Leonard

I agree with all the comments above discouraging you from starting a new team as a student (and you're the only student?)

In addition, it sounds like this team is going to be a one-season team? Just 2016, then you graduate and the team no longer exists?

If you're that set on having your own team- start a VEX or FTC team at least. It's still a challenge to build a successful VEX or FTC robot on your own.

What mentor support do you have? Are you the only student, or will there be more? What skills do you have? What sponsors do you have?

I'm concerned that your failure could mean more than just failure for yourself. It could disenchant sponsors in your community, and create just another failed FRC team that failed to make an impact on it's community.

First of all, thank you for your opinion, it helps a lot

Then, let me add that this team won't end this year. I know people that will take the lead right after me... (Question : I'll be 18 next season, the 2017 one) can I still compete on it?). And I'm not the only student... Someone from Ontario manifested his interest and his helping from there... If in need, I have a few friends who would probably join the team.

I currently have a few engineers as mentors and one for the financial aspect. I mainly program the robots normally but I am also pretty good at electric and financial... I need to get better in mechanics though. I am currently looking for sponsors and will start meeting them very soon.

I am also concerned by my failure and I do my best to keep the team from failing...

Thank you again for your opinion...

[EDesbiens]

Originally Posted by North Sailor

(I believe I in French is Je? Which is not in equipe. So the sentiment still stands )

Pretty true! hahaha

I plan on using the robot built this season on a non profit organisation to promote FIRST in other schools... But for the moment, I need to build one and I really want to compete!

[Libby K]

Two things:

#1.

Originally Posted by EDesbiens

FIRST is about new things, it's about challenge, it's about helping others and learning...

FIRST's mission, from usfirst.org:
"Our mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership."

Take a look at that description of FIRST and see how this team fits in with those goals. Who are your mentors? What experiences do you hope to draw communication & leadership skills from? Building a robot alone might help foster your engineering & technology skills, but what about the rest of FIRST?

Even going back to your definition of FIRST - how exactly does this team help others?

#2.

Akash mentioned earlier in the thread that students have run teams on their own, unsuccessfully. I'm going to jump in as one of those people.

I've posted about the early days of 1923 before, so I won't get too preachy here, but I cannot stress enough how much I do not recommend running a team on your own. At 14, my team (all 4 of us) was administrated, 'mentored' and captained by yours truly, without a mentor to our names for three years. It was exhausting, and I can't say I got what you're 'supposed' to get out of a FIRST experience. In my case, that was worth it to me - I've known FIRST all my life, I knew I wanted to go somewhere in the STEM fields, and I could hit the check box of being 'inspired' - so my focus in running the team was to provide that experience for other people in my school, even if I didn't get it myself.

Your case doesn't sound like that, since it doesn't seem like this team is even really open to other students. As others have mentioned, you seem to have some good pieces in place - and with that, you can definitely contribute positively elsewhere.

Edit:: Whoops - OP has addressed a few of my questions while I was composing.

[EDesbiens]

Originally Posted by Libby K

#2.

Akash mentioned earlier in the thread that students have run teams on their own, unsuccessfully. I'm going to jump in as one of those people.

I've posted about the early days of 1923 before, so I won't get too preachy here, but I cannot stress enough how much I do not recommend running a team on your own. At 14, my team (all 4 of us) was administrated, 'mentored' and captained by yours truly, without a mentor to our names for three years. It was exhausting, and I can't say I got what you're 'supposed' to get out of a FIRST experience. In my case, that was worth it to me - I've known FIRST all my life, I knew I wanted to go somewhere in the STEM fields, and I could hit the check box of being 'inspired' - so my focus in running the team was to provide that experience for other people in my school, even if I didn't get it myself.

Your case doesn't sound like that, since it doesn't seem like this team is even really open to other students. As others have mentioned, you seem to have some good pieces in place - and with that, you can definitely contribute positively elsewhere.

You see, I want to be exhausted, I want to work hard... FIRST was the best thing I ever lived and I did it for the past three years. From January to April, I did nothing else then FIRST and school... I have involved myself in my team really hard and one of my favorite part was the organisation of a video game tournament. For a month I was working on that non-stop, asking students their preference, discussing with the direction, creating logos, finding sponsors, creating friendship with passionate people... And I learned that the making process of such an event gives you, in my opinion, more fun and knowledge then the event itself. I want to reproduce that in FIRST... Organize the team, meet sponsors, explain my passion to people. You see, after posting this thread and joining a few groups on Facebook, I've met awesome people with great passions and great stories and its one of my goal... To create my story... I want to do what I really like and to live my passion to the maximum. I understand you guys have a lot of experience and saw teams fail during your FIRST career but I won't give up.

Thank you for your comment and have a good day...

[Ari423]

Originally Posted by EDesbiens

You see, I want to be exhausted, I want to work hard... FIRST was the best thing I ever lived and I did it for the past three years. From January to April, I did nothing else then FIRST and school... I have involved myself in my team really hard and one of my favorite part was the organisation of a video game tournament. For a month I was working on that non-stop, asking students their preference, discussing with the direction, creating logos, finding sponsors, creating friendship with passionate people...

One more thing and then I will stop trying to convince you that this is a bad idea. You said that last year you spent all of time between FIRST and school. If you only had one other student on your team and no mentors (which I'm sure is not the case) you would have to double the amount of work you did from last year. More likely is that your team had at least 10 students and a few mentors, meaning you would have to work more than 24 hours a day every day to come close to making up the same amount of man-hours as your team did last year. And don't forget, you will have to apply to colleges and keep up with your school work.

Also, there is the problem of mentors. Mentors on FIRST teams exist to teach students how to engineer well. Without mentors, your robot will only have your engineering knowledge, which can't be that much given your age and the fact that you are a single person compared to an entire team. (No offense, but no one knows everything.)

Now I'm done trying to convince you (unless you post something else that I find absurd and no one else attempts to correct you). If you want to form your own team, more power to you (you will need it). Good luck, and I hope to see you at Championships.

[EDesbiens]

Originally Posted by Ari423

One more thing and then I will stop trying to convince you that this is a bad idea. You said that last year you spent all of time between FIRST and school. If you only had one other student on your team and no mentors (which I'm sure is not the case) you would have to double the amount of work you did from last year. More likely is that your team had at least 10 students and a few mentors, meaning you would have to work more than 24 hours a day every day to come close to making up the same amount of man-hours as your team did last year. And don't forget, you will have to apply to colleges and keep up with your school work.

Also, there is the problem of mentors. Mentors on FIRST teams exist to teach students how to engineer well. Without mentors, your robot will only have your engineering knowledge, which can't be that much given your age and the fact that you are a single person compared to an entire team. (No offense, but no one knows everything.)

Now I'm done trying to convince you (unless you post something else that I find absurd and no one else attempts to correct you). If you want to form your own team, more power to you (you will need it). Good luck, and I hope to see you at Championships.

Last year, I spent all my free time at FIRST because I liked it... I did my job (programming the robot) in a few days and the rest of the time I tried to find new ideas, like new ways do control the robot or new possible functions... Which was not necessary at all...

I think I previously said I had mentors... And no, I don't know everything (the object of this thread)...

If you find my work absurd, good for you.

See you in competition

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by EDesbiens

I currently have a few engineers as mentors and one for the financial aspect.

Most of my thoughts are reflected by others in this thread. However, I think that if this sentence of yours is true, then you could certainly be successful. If you have multiple mentors who are planning to work fully on this team with you, and are committed to mentoring you, then it is very likely that you will be successful.

Getting companies to agree to sponsor a single student with thousands of dollars rather than giving those thousands to a whole team however, is going to be tough. Possibly even selfish.

[EDesbiens]

Originally Posted by Monochron

Getting companies to agree to sponsor a single student with thousands of dollars rather than giving those thousands to a whole team however, is going to be tough. Possibly even selfish.

I totally agree with that point... But I think that if the team is able to help many other teams, to even create new ones, it's not that much selfish... This is why we try our best to find new ideas to help around us...

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by EDesbiens

I totally agree with that point... But I think that if the team is able to help many other teams, to even create new ones, it's not that much selfish... This is why we try our best to find new ideas to help around us...

Speaking from a company perspective, I would rather give $3,000 to an organization that ONLY works on building new teams than $8,000 on a team that builds other teams but also sends a single student to compete in a $5,000 competition.

Wait, who is going to be on your drive team? At the very least you will have to have a human player in addition to yourself.

[Aidan Cox]

I am not going to tell you whether or not you should start the team, as I don't feel I have enough experience to make either of those statements.

However, it does sound to me as if you are looking to obtain a leadership role of sorts, and I don't think starting a FRC team is the most practical way to go about getting said role. A FRC team isn't just a team, it's a business and a program as well. You said you have been in touch with possible mentors and sponsors, that's fantastic. Maybe those assets would be better strengthening a team you are already part of, maybe not. It also sounded like you would be the only student working on many aspects of the team, with possibly some other student members. I highly suggest having more student members to fill more roles, and that way there are some with experience when you leave.

There are many other ways to be ambitious and to"have a lot on your plate" without there being so much ante. One option being like Kevin said- start a VEX or FTC team at the least. That experience will at least give you more knowledge about how all that stuff works, without such a high risk.

Advice if you're looking for leadership while you are still part of another team, or decide you want to be: Ask, it can be as simple as that sometimes. Ask to lead a sub-group. You like some (if not all) of the aspects the program stands for and want to spread it throughout the community- ask to lead a demo, be a spokesperson for the team and talk about what the team does. Want to be a leader that also teaches? Return as a mentor, teach the students that are there and want to learn.

Taking the OP seriously, you want info on starting a team. There are resources out there. I also suggest asking more questions, and answering others' without the slight retorts. I wish you the best of luck on whichever path you decide to take.

[EDesbiens]

Originally Posted by Monochron

Wait, who is going to be on your drive team? At the very least you will have to have a human player in addition to yourself.

I thought the best way to fix that is to give the opportunity to students from the other teams in the alliance to come and help on the field, filling the holes in the drive team. This way, they get the opportunity to live what it is like to drive or be the human player and everything goes fine

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by EDesbiens

I thought the best way to fix that is to give the opportunity to students from the other teams in the alliance to come and help on the field, filling the holes in the drive team. This way, they get the opportunity to live what it is like to drive or be the human player and everything goes fine

Unfortuantely that is typically against the rules of FRC:

DRIVE TEAM– one (1) COACH, two (2) DRIVERS, and one (1) HUMAN PLAYER from the same FRC Team who are responsible for ROBOT operation during a particular MATCH.

The entirety of the Drive Team needs to come from your FRC team. You may be able to find a loop hole if you call other non-member students "sponsors" of your team. In some circumstances sponsors can be considered as members of your team.

[EDesbiens]

Originally Posted by Monochron

Unfortuantely that is typically against the rules of FRC:


The entirety of the Drive Team needs to come from your FRC team. You may be able to find a loop hole if you call other non-member students "sponsors" of your team. In some circumstances sponsors can be considered as members of your team.

$@#$@#$@#$@#, didn't see that one Even if I say all teams are forming a great team all together?

But, as said before, another student from Ontario kind of joined the team... We will not meet until the competition in Montreal and he will drive or be the human player, we don't know yet... Maybe both if the human player can control the robot too like during this year...