Meeting Schedule

[EricH]

You're not the only one asking questions about schedule...
https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...light=schedule
particularly https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...3&postcount=55

One thing to remind the other student leaders (and, if I were you, I'd privately remind the mentors): Mentors are volunteers, and don't have to be there. So if they decide to stick to the requested schedule and leave the shop at 7, the team's gotta scoot!


That being said, you don't have to do all your work in the shop. So, here's a proposal:
Work at the shop until 7 (or other agreed-upon time--it'll likely be later as build progresses). After that time, if work can be done outside the shop, take it home and work on it from home. (CAD, programming, planning the next day's work, ordering parts, and "hey, who's bringing dinner tomorrow?" can all be handled remotely with a little bit of setup. Just as an example.)

[Greg Hainsworth]

As a student team leader, you need to tell these members that their approach to this is wrong and detrimental to the team. As a mentor, I would walk if my team did this to me. Can your team afford to lose these mentors? It is totally insulting to the efforts and sacrifices that your mentors are giving you and your team. Your members sound greedy and callous to the the needs and obligations of the mentors.

We have jobs (sometimes two jobs), families, and sometimes hobbies outside of FRC. Giving 20 hours a week is a big sacrifice for us and our spouses. If I understand you correctly, your team wants 45 - 50 hours per week.

Mentors want our teams to field a successful bots. I take pride in this team and I want them to be proud of their work. I suggest you look at your strategy at the beginning of build season. Break down the points and focus on mastering the easiest way to score. If you try to do everything, you may end up doing everything....poorly. This is true in FRC and in life.

I will now put on my manager hat and give you some leadership advice - overtime hours are generally not productive. It is easy to burn out, get lost in the weeds, and lose focus when you are putting in such long hours. You have to schedule breaks and respect the schedule. Take a day off and tell your members to work individually if necessary. Studying the rule book, looking at Robot in 3 day videos, scanning CD threads, scanning robot part vendor sites are all very beneficial activities but don't require a team meeting. Coming to build with a clear head is important. Long hours does not equal quality hours.

In parting - we work 3 nights a week 6-9 and Saturdays for 6-9 hours during build season. We reserve Sundays for when emergencies pop up but we generally try to work 20 hours per week. Members work independently and come to meetings with ideas and ready to get to work.

Good luck.

[Hitchhiker 42]

It's important as a team leader to make sure the other students understand that they need to compromise. Beyond that, what our team does during build season is we never meet Sundays (partly because of the school), but, more importantly, we avoid Fridays as well to avoid burnout and keep people rested.

[JamesCH95]

Dialing back build hours, scoping the robot design to our capabilities, and planning efficiently has lead to improved success for my team in recent years. Speaking as a former student and current head coach: learning to work efficiently is the key to being a successful and sustaining FRC team.

It is important that the students and mentors come to an understanding about the desired level of build effort. To be clear: I said understanding, not agreement. Remember that the mentors are the people who will be with the team year after year ensuring its continuation and sustainability. Their commitment is critical in maintaining a team.

[jweston]

The difference between having a plan and not having one is night and day. I hope you can convince your teammates to have enough faith to try it.

In the meantime, your team has only the memory of the most recent build season to go off of. The place to start is to acknowledge your teammates' frustration with having poured their blood and sweat into a robot with disappointing results. But also let them know your team is trying something different based on the experience of very successful FRC teams. Let them know that this year won't be last year. There is a better way with planning if they are willing to give it a chance.

Speaking in general, it's important that everyone, students and mentors, are good team members. This means respecting each other's time and input. It's important to respect the conditions mentors place on their availability since they often are self-supporting and likely supporting families.

Being a good team member also means respecting team rules. That includes the one requiring a mentor to be present while using your workspace. Your team does not need members who pick and choose which rules they want to follow, no matter what other skills they possess. If a member violates a rule, I'd expect your team's handbook would recommend appropriate disciplinary measures. Remember that violating this particular rule might cost the team the privilege of using that workspace, not to mention the terrible possibilities of what could happen if someone were to be injured with no legal adult present. You might want to remind your teammates of this.

Your teammates may feel like it isn't fair to not be able to work when they want and as much as they want but that's the deal, take it or leave it. The mentors don't need to justify themselves for wanting to restrict their time. Their time is already a gift to the team.

----

Some tips for build season project management:

For anyone on a team that doesn't currently plan their build season prior to kickoff, please check out 1114's build season. Get your team to start planning now. You might have to make some minor adjustments to accommodate your team's realities:
http://www.simbotics.org/resources/t...t/build-season

When coming up with your build season plan, identify tasks, milestones, and deliverables:

• task: an activity with a goal
• milestone: a major progress point in your plan where you may need to make changes to your plan. For instance, your team might consider final CAD designs to be a milestone.
• deliverable: a document or a component. Examples of a document: a CAD design, a strategy analysis, an electrical layout. Examples of a physical component: a completed mechanism, completed code, a fully assembled robot.

All tasks, milestones, and deliverables should have due dates, with tasks having start dates as well. Each task should also have a student(s) and/or mentor(s) who are responsible for tracking how close the task is to complete.

If you live in a climate where it snows during build, add an estimated number of snow days into your build season plan. Remember to account for holidays if they restrict access to your build space (MLK Day is 1/16, President's Day is 2/20). Consider that weather in other parts of the world can delay part delivery, so anticipate parts may not arrive on time even if they are in stock and you have perfect weather.

Schedule a weekly check-in during build season among subteam heads to compare actual progress to the build plan. It only needs to be about 15 minutes. If your team is slipping behind schedule, you may have to sacrifice one or more portions of your schedule. Be willing to do this! You'll have a much more successful competition with a well constructed robot that has 50% of the mechanisms you wanted than with a poorly constructed robot that has 100% of the mechanisms you wanted.

Try to keep your team's limits in mind during your robot design phase. Design to your team's resources (time, experience, tools, etc.) If your team can manage their workload and time well, you might get through build season with a shred of sanity left for competition.

[Monochron]

If your team is really meeting 4-11 that often, then you are doing yourselves more harm than good.

[TroyCDH]

I remember a few years ago Dean Kamen giving everyone a "friendly reminder" that it really is NOT about the robot. The goal of FIRST is for mentors to lead high school students into STEM programs at colleges/universities.

I suggest Step One is getting the mentors and students on same sheet of music with some 2-way respect for each other.

As for the schedule that should be an open discussion where the two main questions are: When are you available? How many hours a week can you commit?

As a mentor/student I might be available 5 of 7 days a week but only willing to commit to three days a week.

You posted a good question!

[Michael Corsetto]

Originally Posted by EricH

That being said, you don't have to do all your work in the shop. So, here's a proposal:
Work at the shop until 7 (or other agreed-upon time--it'll likely be later as build progresses). After that time, if work can be done outside the shop, take it home and work on it from home. (CAD, programming, planning the next day's work, ordering parts, and "hey, who's bringing dinner tomorrow?" can all be handled remotely with a little bit of setup. Just as an example.)

I'll +1 this. Being able to accomplish significant tasks outside of team meetings helps keep in-person meetings efficient and productive. It's a difficult skill to learn but totally worth it!

-Mike