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Unread 26-01-2016, 17:22
hrench's Avatar
hrench hrench is offline
Mechanical build mentor
AKA: Bob Hrenchir
FRC #1108 (Panther Robotics)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Rookie Year: 2010
Location: Paola, KS
Posts: 220
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Re: What to do when mentors are leading the team in the wrong direction?

I'm pleased to see that a good deal of the advice I see being given here I agree with. My own team has this squabble recurring. I think declaring one group (students/mentor) 'runs' the team is wrong. You need to get together.

Technical adults that volunteer their time (and money?) to a robotics team do expect some kind of a return for it. Mostly the good feeling of cooperation and teaching, spreading the 'engineering bug', but winning can be nice too. So when an engineer has what he/she thinks is a good idea, of course he/she should be allowed to prototype it. But the same for the newbie/rookie. I'll help everyone prototype to the best of my ability. Even if I don't like their idea, I'll still do my best with it. What we do is brainstorm ideas and then vote on the ones to prototype to keep it manageable.

The reason they're 'mentors' is presumably they have training and experience that gives them more knowledge than young people about this specific subject. As a mentor, I've seen thousands of machines and hundreds of FRC robots. Please stop thinking you're better at this than me.

But you said you're 'prototyping' and I think that's a great sign. When my team prototypes (which I really think should be called 'proof of concept', because we're not going into production), then we compare the different designs and try to use objective data--can drive train 1 cross the rough terrain 6 of ten times, while drive train 2 can only cross one of ten.

This way its not 'voting' and 'opinions' that rule the decision making process, but instead something approaching "Science." This is the way to get buy-in from the 'minority' voters. Yes, some criteria is weighted and there is always 'sway' toward one idea or another. But if you've 'proved' one idea is better, then you have to agree.

As for prototyping half-way into build season, I think you should've been done with it a week ago. Good luck!

As for the frame being important, I personally think the mechanisms are more important and the frame just ties them together. You can't design the frame--using CAD or cardboard--until you've compared and chosen the mechanisms. We use a kit frame often and still make good robot.

Anyway, just don't lose heart. You guys gotta get along and telling mentors that you students run the team isn't the way to do it. It's about working together.
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