How far do you Travel to Mentor?

[Chris is me]

I live just about 30 minutes from the center of Meriden, CT, where GUS is based out of. The space we are working out of for this build season is in Southington, which is another 5-10 minutes away, though the shop is very close to the highway so it doesn't take much longer to get there. After working with Shaker for six years (~10 minute drive away), giving up at least an hour of my day to travel is definitely a big change and a huge challenge for me. Shaker also only met for 15 hours a week on average in build season, whereas GUS meets for at least 20.

While there are at least two or three teams closer to me, I'm a lot less familiar with them, and I had nothing but positive experiences competing alongside GUS during my times in previous seasons. I knew they were a team that wasn't stuck in an established way of doing things, they were a team that valued being competitive on the field, and I would be able to focus on the areas where I'm most effective - engineering, strategy, drive coaching, etc. As I was just starting my career I was worried about biting off more than I could chew by joining a team that needed more help than I could provide without burning out. So here I am! 228's great.

[Ty Tremblay]

Originally Posted by Peyton Yeung

I find it interesting how far some people go to mentor a team. Anybody want to share why they drive upwards of a few hours each trip to mentor their team? Is there not a team closer? I've always been a bit spoiled with team distribution (4 nearby teams when in high school and 4 nearby teams while in college).

I do 2 hours each way (or 6, depending on where I'm working) because if it wasn't for 319 (and FIRST) I wouldn't have discovered robotics and would probably be a line cook at Applebee's right now. 319 has competed for 21 years and, before 2012, never had any mechanically oriented engineers. I'm more than happy to help out a team that changed my life for the better.

[rsegrest]

Originally Posted by Libby K

For me, it's because 1923 is my home. I've worked with other teams & learned a lot, but nothing beats my MidKnight family...

I drive 3.5 hours (not counting traffic) every Friday night, and back on Sundays...

...The schedule is exhausting and you need to make sure you're ready to sacrifice a lot to commit to it.

Libby, the MidKnights are lucky to have you. As a team coach I am blessed to have three that are driving 2 hours from college on Friday/Saturdays to mentor and work with our team. One of them helped found our team nine years ago and has not missed a build season yet. Not sure what it will be like to build a robot without him when he graduates from college next year.

For all of you who are doing the long drives I cannot tell you how much those of us who are in the trenches with them every day appreciate your presence on the weekends so on behalf of all of us THANK YOU!

[Brian C]

Originally Posted by Foster

First, I'd like to call BS on that line. You've been everywhere, so I think that it should be "I travel tens of hundreds of miles" or "many, many hundreds of miles" or "well over 1000 miles." Or there are some Koko Ed clones out there using your name.

While I have not seen Ed face-to-face in quite a while (we're still waiting for him to grace us with his presence at the SBPLI Long Island Regional. Closer than Vegas! )

I can tell you that when he says he travels many thousands of miles he's not even remotely stretching the truth. This is not including post season events he volunteers at.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Brian C

While I have not seen Ed face-to-face in quite a while (we're still waiting for him to grace us with his presence at the SBPLI Long Island Regional. Closer than Vegas! )

I can tell you that when he says he travels many thousands of miles he's not even remotely stretching the truth. This is not including post season events he volunteers at.

I have that info for my taxman somewhere (I get 0.55 a mile so it's important to know that kind of stuff).

[ratdude747]

At one point I was driving 45 minutes to an hour 15 to mentor (and before, as a student). Another time it was under 30 minutes (although downtown Louisville traffic can be a pain). In my area those two teams are all there is minus a bunch of FLL and a few FTC teams about the same distance away. Southern Indiana (my part at least) is completely devoid of FIRST. Sad, really.

[abross]

I'm lucky enough to only travel around 10 minutes to my team (both from work and home).

[VexisDarksteele]

My commute is only about 25 minutes from my university to the high school (taking the highway; back roads would be longer), but sometimes it gets bumped up to about 45 when we get a real bad snow storm. Had whiteout conditions last Friday and still showed up, even though the meeting was already most of the way over by the time I got there. It's the thought that counts, right?

[bborah7390]

20-30 miles almost daily for me.

[techhelpbb]

I have a home less than 8 miles from Mount Olive High School. Thing is I am often required in Downtown or Midtown Manhattan in person. On the best day my commute one way is 2.25 hours from Mount Olive. On the worst it can be 6 hours one way. The last leg is on the PATH train because it can take even longer by car. With a 5+ hour commute per day, a 9-12 hour work day, MORT running almost everyday during build season, plus multiple businesses in addition to my managing director work, I usually can not make every night at MORT. Sometimes I get lucky and can work from home for a bit or can take some time off. Those times I show up more frequently.

I manage an International team. So a lot of this can be done remotely and even from NYC is still remote. Unfortunately even with my Honda Insight getting 50MPG I waste enormous amounts of energy travelling for a job that I could do without physical presence. I could even help MORT since I now have a 2015 KOP robot with all the bells and whistles. Doing the CNC mentoring was more difficult because you had to be physically present and I do not own a Haas TM1 to show the experience outside the school. The current CNC mentor has his own Haas mills at his workplace so he has a remote work opportunity.

[JesseK]

I used to live 10 minutes from the 1885. Then I moved to be closer to more 'civilization' (I kid!), about 30 minutes from 1885. I didn't know it at the time, but I had moved to within 2 blocks of one team and 1 mile of another team. Then I bought my house, and am now 45 minutes from 1885. It turns out that I am commute-wise within 15 minutes of 6 FRC teams (perhaps more but for the beltway's evening traffic). For now I stick with 1885 since they do way more than FRC, and it all needs support.

[kingbrandon14]

Every weekend, I drive 4 hours to the team build site Friday, then 4 hours back to college on Sunday. Also planning to volunteer at 4-5 competition events, up to 8 hours away. Worth it!!!

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by JesseK

I used to live 10 minutes from the 1885. Then I moved to be closer to more 'civilization' (I kid!)

No, that sounds about right.

20 minutes to 422 and back. I pass by a few other teams and am pretty close at the 20 minute mark to other teams but the blood oath I shook on won't let me leave.

[pts211]

While I was in college I was driving 400 miles per weekend (~6.5 hours total) to mentor.

After spending my high school years on Team Driven (#1730) I started mentoring our "rival team", The Broncobots (#1987). It was a lot of driving but since I felt I was making a worthwhile contribution it was worth it. Oh, I also really enjoy driving - so that helped. A nice road trip proved to be a great break from college stress!

These days though I'm down to a short 10-ish mile commute.