What is the biggest problem faced by FIRST teams?

[Rosiebotboss]

Originally Posted by emersont49

Jane's comments are the keys to real success. Good communication can solve a host of issues.

I believe that mentors should teach, advise and assist. If mentors are suffering from burnout then they are too involved.

An issue that is just as important as funding is getting space for robot work and parts storage. Having to move from location to location make it difficult to maintain any degree of organization.

Not too involved.........they are probably not involved enough.

Get more involved in your school, in your booster club, with your students, meet their parents, meet their teachers and admins. The only way (IMHO) to avoid burnout is to replace/duplicate yourself. If you are able to do this, the load becomes lighter with better results.

I believe it was Henry Ford that said, "I wouuld rather have 1% effort from 100 men than 100% effort from 1 man."

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

Communication.

I must disagree with Jane. Communication is not the biggest problem faced by FIRST teams. Communication is the biggest solution to most of the other problems.

I mostly go along with the people who say funding is the biggest problem. However, I'd modify it to consistent funding.

[waialua359]

The biggest problem is balancing FIRST with your personal life.....The more you do, the harder it is on the personal side. Even if money is a challenge......its out there, even on a small remote state like Hawaii. But, time is something that I seem to be fighting against day after day, and the older you get, the harder the fight.
1. Time
2. Good consistent mentorship.
3. Money
4. Good students
5. Facilities/tools/space to support the program.

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

I must disagree with Jane. Communication is not the biggest problem faced by FIRST teams. Communication is the biggest solution to most of the other problems.

I mostly go along with the people who say funding is the biggest problem. However, I'd modify it to consistent funding.

I just noticed that your from Kokomo, IN. I got a good friend that's from there who now lives in my neighborhood.

[kramarczyk]

Originally Posted by Chris Fultz

I think every team needs a leader with vision and a view of the big picture of FIRST so that they can then sell it to the mentors, students, administration and sponsors.

FIRST is a difficult program to grasp -

To maintain the support of adminstrators and sponsors $$ (both mentioned in other posts) it takes someone who can explain it is more than kids building a robot.

To maintain mentors it takes someone who can manage conflicts and personalities and keep eveyone moving forward.

To maintain students, it takes someone who can continue to inspire them, let them learn and grow, and let them see the benefits to them personally from being involved.

For some teams this all comes together in one person, for others it it a small core team of mentors - but i think it has to be there for a team to survive and thrive.

I've gotta go with Chris on this one. Without a single vision for the team the limited resources get spent managing people and trying to get them all pointed in the same direction instead of managing projects, driven by the collective passion, that set the team up for success. Basically, without an agreed upon definition of success the odds of succeeding are slim.

[Pavan Dave]

Students is our problem.

We have had three high schools feed our team [it is a district team] and now we have four, but still we can only get around 20-30 people to stick around during the build. For three, soon to be four, 5A schools those are low numbers of participation. Some of it has to do with grades and eligibility while others have to do with time constraints and other options but still 20-30 people isn't great especially from schools with over ~2-3K+ students each.

[demps45]

MONEY! Since we are a team from a very small community, it is very difficult to get additional sponsorships. We are very fortunate to have Delphi as our major sponsor, and we are very grateful for their support, but that only goes so far. They contribute only about a third of the money needed, so its up to our team to fund raise for the rest.

Second on the list would be mentors. We have lost a few mentors over the years, and it is hard to find replacements willing to devote the time needed.

[robostangs548]

Money is not the only problem... About two years ago we had a problem finding a new sponsor after our founding sponsor found out that they could no longer sponsor our team. We as a team worked very hard to build up a team that could still "survive" even if a devastating blow like that were to happen again even if another sponsor was found. It was a sort of “back-up plan”. Sponsors are a great thing. If that is not available however, our team came up with a great "back up" plan. It is a binder that our team developed over about 2-3 months. It tells you what you should do. And now, we are back on top. But not without a price. Even with the loss that year, we managed to make it to one regional, but without being prepared, it was a grueling task to raise 6k in 3 weeks. That was two years ago. (I was a freshman). Last year, we raised enough money to make it to two regionals. As of right now for the 2008 season, we are currently signed up for 2 regionals and the Championships in ATL. So pretty much what I am trying to get at is, Commitment. That is the biggest problem. Because if we wouldn’t have had it, I can guarantee that we would not have come as far as a team as we are now. If you don’t have it, it is very hard to make a FIRST team successful. (Everyone knows the “committed” 12:00 nights that I am talking about.)

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

I must disagree with Jane. Communication is not the biggest problem faced by FIRST teams. Communication is the biggest solution to most of the other problems.

I think we're saying basically the same thing, Alan, I just didn't communicate my thoughts as well as I should have. You are right, communication is the solution to many problems teams face.

[JesseK]

Last year we had a fairly large problem with communication across the entire team during the robot build season. There was the "inner loop" that included the mentors, faculty, and about 5 students that were always at every meeting as well as working on bits of robot outside the meetings. The outer loop were those that didn't even know our strategy for the game, or couldn't tell you anything about our robot without looking on a sheet, etc. To be on the build team and not know or understand anything about the build is pretty .... problematic.

This year we're making students say up front that they will commit to the team. With 10 minute quizes (mult. choice, easy and funny!) at the start of a meeting that pertain to the game, robot, and individual groups' statuses we're hoping that the students will at least start to see the connection that everything has to the team rather than what their one simple task is.

Robot building aside, there are some students that the mentors never see since they always do their work from 2-5pm whereas mentors show up around 5. Typically these are the web team, students who help with fundraising, etc. Without a leader such as the one we have, those students would have next to no interest in our program and eventually get left out of the team completely -- not because they have no value, but because there is no one to bridge the gap of communication.

So in essence, I think that no matter what, the lines of communication must begin with the central leader and be refined each year. It's one of those things everyone takes for granted when it's there and greatly misses when it's not.

[AcesPease]

Originally Posted by JesseK

Last year we had a fairly large problem with communication across the entire team during the robot build season. There was the "inner loop" that included the mentors, faculty, and about 5 students that were always at every meeting as well as working on bits of robot outside the meetings. The outer loop were those that didn't even know our strategy for the game, or couldn't tell you anything about our robot without looking on a sheet, etc. To be on the build team and not know or understand anything about the build is pretty .... problematic.

This year we're making students say up front that they will commit to the team. With 10 minute quizes (mult. choice, easy and funny!) at the start of a meeting that pertain to the game, robot, and individual groups' statuses we're hoping that the students will at least start to see the connection that everything has to the team rather than what their one simple task is.

Robot building aside, there are some students that the mentors never see since they always do their work from 2-5pm whereas mentors show up around 5. Typically these are the web team, students who help with fundraising, etc. Without a leader such as the one we have, those students would have next to no interest in our program and eventually get left out of the team completely -- not because they have no value, but because there is no one to bridge the gap of communication.

So in essence, I think that no matter what, the lines of communication must begin with the central leader and be refined each year. It's one of those things everyone takes for granted when it's there and greatly misses when it's not.

Communications is very important.

I am seeing another sneaky problem in this and Pavan's post. Expectations. Do we expect everyone to get the same thing out of participating? If we do I think we limit team sizes or have trouble accepting the students and adults in the "outer loop"

Food for thought

[Dan Richardson]

The biggest problem is desire to sleep.

If we just cut out sleeping you have plenty of time to do everything thats needed to be succesful.

Seriously however, everyone struggles with money, the harder to work to raise it, the quicker you get to your goals. But I don't think its the biggest problem, committed and qualified mentors is the biggest problem that faces most FIRST teams. There are very few teams that have enough mentors to properly train and manage perenially succesful teams. Talent level and number of students are part of success but students graduate and prayerfully go off to higher education. When they graduate it is the Mentors responsibility to prepare the next group to come through the ranks.

A dedicated mentor group is key to sustained success, and it is also what most teams, especially new ones, struggle with.

[Allison K]

Not to sound terribly pessimistic, but I'm going to go with politics as the biggest problem faced by FIRST teams.

Although all of the other issues are certainly an obstacle, nothing has quite the destructive power that politics possess. Politics are subtle, unlike issues (like funds, students, etc.) which are out in the open to discuss and solve.

I'd like to be able to think that FIRST (both teams and as an organization) is above the personal agenda, or the grudge, or manipulation, but political questions are some of the most difficult ones to answer. What truly is best for the students? How does one balance the needs of the team/organization with the needs of individual students? How can we (as members of FIRST, or as members of a team) continue to operate as one unified group, while still respecting the thoughts and opinions of the individual?

~Allison