Mentors: What's something you wish you knew going in?

[crazyrobochick]

I get back into robotics 4 years ago by accident when my brother and sister asked me for help with their team. Now I'm the lead mentor and I wish someone had told me to get the parents involved EARLY and OFTEN! Before I was lead mentor we didn't have as much parent involvement and all the fundraising and "other stuff" fell on the mentors and kids when they should be focusing on the bot. Now it is a requirement for our parents or some family member to participate and we have found our parents want to get involved just didn't know how. Remember that FIRST is about more than just bots and having a cohesive team is a having a good partnership between students, mentors, and parents.

Also I parrot what other people have said. It is the students robot. They need to succeed or fail on their own or else they aren't learning.