Mentors VS Students

[Straberrie]

Originally Posted by cmonkey99

We're having some problems on our team as Mentor vs. Student powers lately.

It seems that about 5 of us will start working on the robot with our previously decided design and one of our mentors will come back from the shop with the part already built but in a completely different design and most of the time very quickly and poorly done.

Then about half the time we're able to convince them to change the part back and the other half of the time they "convince" us with their supreme knowledge( )that their idea or part is better.

Now I thought the purpose of the mentors was to suggest things sometimes and help us out when we needed it. Not to change our design and make half-baked parts.

Its gotten to the point where I almost feel like dropping out of the club and focusing on MESA and other things.

Not to mention the fact that there are only about half the students doing much work, the other half just sit around and shoot the breeze.

I was wondering if any of you have faced similar situations or have any suggestions.

Keep in mind we're a fairly small team with about 4-7 students and 2-3 mentors at each build meeting

Thanks for any help

Well! If that is a problem, I suggest you confront your mentors about it! Mentors are there to help you and I am sure that their HUUUUUGE input into the team.... even if it means changing the design is only provided to help you. The mentors see flaws in the design and just want you guys to do a really good job, so they over do it. Just tell the mentors that you do not particularly like everything being changed and I am sure they will work something out. If you simply tell them to change something back, they might not see a reason to do it if their design is the one that works best, but if you explain to them that you want to be a part of the team and by team you do not mean one person (mentor) group, they will probably understand that they were a bit too clueless about teamwork.

Our team is also pretty small and we don't have too many mentors coming at each meeting, but they help us. They don't build the robot by themselves, but when we are having trouble, they are always there to help out. I know from experience that mentors are there not to restrict you, but to elivate your skill. Besides, I am sure that some parts of your designs were implemented into the new versions your mentors created! Even though we don;t have such problem, if we would, we would just all group up and simply tell the mentors what is wrong. They just wanna help you the best they can, so don't complain, just talk to them, K?

[Matth3w]

My science teacher/Mentor tells us that there are two types of FRC team robots. Student built robots and robots assembled by students. Our robot is hard to control, and it lifts the ball a few inches from the ground. In our eyes as rookies, thats more than success. In your situation, it is still a student built robot im sure, just with a communication gap between the adults and students. It sounds frustrating i agree, but it also sounds like the mentors really want you guys to succeed. I don't know what your teams idea of success is, but i wish you guys the best.