FAHA: Adult Coach on Drive Team

[kramarczyk]

Originally Posted by Molten

All I really ask is that you allow us to define the point ourselves rather then telling us what it is supposed to be.

You get to do that with your team. A team is a separate entity from FIRST and is therefore entitled to it's own perspective. A team may choose to participate in other activities beyond FRC (VEX,BEST, Bot IQ, etc.) for a variety of benefits. Consequentially, a team may have a vision and mission that is somewhat different from any one of the individual competitions.

I cannot recall any example of FIRST telling the team what it is supposed to be, so why should we be telling FIRST what it is supposed to be. If learning is a part of your team mission or student coaches work for you, great. Teams can take a different look at the world than what is contained in FIRST's mission; it's allowed. Just don't assume that all of your reasons for participating should be pushed back to FIRST.

Stated differently...
FIRST != Team
Team != FIRST



.

[epfaffli]

Originally Posted by ICanCountTo19
Over the past couple years in a large number of Dean's speaches we have heard him adress teams who are student run, no adult mentors. He says they're missing the point.


Not one of these posts suggests removing adult mentors totally from the team. I'm sure that Dean was talking about the total team makeup and not this ascept of the team. Adult Mentors are needed to teach and direct the team. They should also train team leaders that can then use these skills to direct the drive team as student mentors.

[Molten]

Originally Posted by Molten

All I really ask is that you allow us to define the point ourselves rather then telling us what it is supposed to be.

Originally Posted by kramarczyk

I cannot recall any example of FIRST telling the team what it is supposed to be...

Above in my previous post I have a lengthy quote from kickoff that was given by Dave Lavery. This speech pretty well is FIRST telling us what the team is supposed to be. Now, the only question is Dave Lavery=FIRST. He is certainly a major spokesperson for FIRST.

Originally Posted by epfaffli

Originally Posted by ICanCountTo19
I'm sure that Dean was talking about the total team makeup and not this ascept of the team.

Please read the thread in its entirety. We have already found that it was actually Dave Lavery who made this comment, not Dean. Also, the actual speech is quoted in a previous post I've made. Please read it before commenting on it.

[EricH]

Molten, what is FIRST's mission statement? Does it include a reference to mentors? Is not the mission statement to some extent a statement of FIRST's goals and methods?

FIRST's preferred method is to have mentors. They do not say what type of mentors, just that the program should have mentors. End of discussion, except that some teams don't read the mission statement and try to do the whole thing with one adult who pretty much is there so they can use their facility.

Anything beyond having mentor(s) that mentor (not shop-key-holders or accountants) is up to the team.

[Zflash]

So Mr. Lavery has pointed out that those teams that decide not to include Adult Mentors in the build process are missing the point. Never did he say that the teams that do not include mentors in build or do not have them on the field are not allowed to participate. A mentor is a great thing to have because they have already taken the tests of experience. And we all know that Mrs. Experience is a tough teacher because she gives the test first and the lesson last. So maybe a team is "missing" the point by competing a certain way, however since you are in FIRST your still coming out on top. By the way 1319 has a mentor coach, mainly because we strive to win. This is what the students want. Also winning will help when it comes to recruiting. When we won the Gailileo division in 2007 our enrollment jumped to over twice its size. Many of our now greatest students only joined because they wanted to be apart of a winning program. They are now interested in engineering fields and college in general. They were inspired and continued to be by our mentor lead team. To each his own I say that's why America is great.

[JaiM]

The 971 drive team chooses whoever they think is best suitable for the job, whether it be a student or an adult.

In 2004, 971 won SVR with an adult drive team coach.
This year, 2009, 971 won SVR (undefeated), Galileo, and Einstein with a student drive team coach.

I think it is unfair to say that an adult coach is inherently better than a student one. It all depends on an individual's actual abilities to be a coach.