What Makes a FIRST Team Successful?

[RoboMom]

Originally Posted by Dr.Bot

My answer is, if your team showed up at a regional and had a robot to bring to the field, you were successful

A long time ago I had a conversation with a senior NASA manager, when I mentioned that he must be really happy since the team from his center was doing so well, he said: “These are all my teams, and they all are doing well.” I never forgot this perspective.

Along these lines, there were many robots at Chesapeake last year who did not pass inspection/ were not running on Thursday. But by Friday morning, they were all up and running, with stickers.

You can guess what happened. We put out the all-call.
One of the 2nd year teams who benefited from some help was just telling this story, amazed at the help they got. I got a phone call last night from someone relaying the story, told by the students and some team alumni. This inner city team had a great year. All the team seniors went on to college, all with scholarships-many in engineering, they made it a priority to sign up for the Championship for this year, they are doing well with fundraising and community support. They are excited and willing to help with the many rookies we have this year. They had some rocky times, yet were able to stay inspired .

RE: the last paragraph. I agree. See up there under my name.