Advice about team environment and finding mentors

[waialua359]

This is advice from a teacher who has been involved with FIRST now for our 18th season and one of the founders of our program.
IMO, every team (if school based) should be lead by a teacher.
Ultimately, the lead teacher should be the strongest advocate and overall leader for all aspects of an FRC program, because they are ultimately responsible for what happens with students from a learning and safety perspective.
While our full time mentors are essential to our program successes and teaching students skillsets our school cannot provide, I dont expect them to be fully responsible for team objectives, program management, and ensuring that each team member gets a differentiated learning experience optimal for them.
This approach has allowed our mentors to stay with our program for years because they dont worry about school politics and logistics as much as possible. Instead, the goal is to have a "turn-key" program that allows them to share their expertise without all the noise and distractions that can discourage volunteers to work in a school setting.
While I post a lot of positive things about our program in social media and other local news outlets, I never air out the bad stuff and challenges we face. My greatest asset to the team has been raising funds and maneuvering past all the DOE obstacles in creating a fun, smooth working environment with adequate resources as much as possible.
As part of a rural school, I am now on my 9th principal in 23 years! Sometimes I feel like I'm on Goliath at 6 Flags than a public school.

I suggest finding that lead teacher who is passionate about Robotics/STEM. Without it, its a tough road to maintain a workable FRC environment that involves so much funding, time, and partnerships to make it work. You need all of those things figured out before even thinking about game challenges and what kind of robot to build.

My 2 cents.

-Glenn Lee
Lead teacher and coordinator, Waialua Robotics Program