Team in ruins

[ttldomination]

Originally Posted by cactuarman

It was a good idea listing out my questions. After doing so I realized that my problem wasn't so big and that it is quite manageable with the right resources. A lot of these questions I have found were already answered elsewhere.
here are some questions I came up with:
-What would be the best method of teaching everything the newcomers will need to know before build season(ex: how often do you think we should meet to get a good handle of things before season starts?)
-Do you think java would be a good language to use, especially when teaching people who most likely have no experience with programming or should I go with Labview.
-How would I go about finding mentors?


I think team 842 helping us would be a great idea. I'm sure that would be very helpful to our team.

Thanks for the help so far.

- I've found that the best way to teach new comers is to have them work alongside with veterans, but that's where your team lacks. I would recommend that you guys strip down bots and talk about the function. There are several resources online (WPI, CD, TBA) which will give you resources to teach your new members all sorts of skills.

I would recommend at least once a week.

- This is really in the eye of the beholder. For me, personally, I find Java to be better in the scope of teaching. The material available online for Java is unparalleled. You want to think long term and wonder "next year, when I'm not here, will they be able to handle it". (which is one thing my team isn't really putting on priority)

- I find that mentors are the most effective when he/she has a want to put effort into whatever they have. Encourage parents, neighbors, and even sponsors to come out and lend a hand. Offer companies a higher level of sponsorship if they chose to come out and help. You'll find that there are a lot of people who are just waiting to help you.


Don't worry about it too much. As long you have a clear heading, you'll get where you want to go. I would recommend you get in touch with a local team. They might help you expand your base, and who knows, maybe you'll have gained a new competition partner.

[Nica F.]

First of all, don't worry your team certainly isn't "in ruins" just in a tough situation that many teams will have to go through. Every team is going to lose a "batch" that seemed to be the ones that always knew what was going on, and its yours and the other active member's job to build the team as veterans. I could write a lengthy post to answer your questions, but instead I'm going to link you to valid discussions for each of them because the ChiefDelphi community can pretty much answer every robotics related question ever.

-What would be the best method of teaching everything the newcomers will need to know before build season(ex: how often do you think we should meet to get a good handle of things before season starts?)

Training upcoming members

-Do you think java would be a good language to use, especially when teaching people who most likely have no experience with programming or should I go with Labview.

Can't touch on that personally, but this thread is helpful regarding Java
Java Programming

-How would I go about finding mentors?

RoboMom had some great advice in this thread including:

Originally Posted by RoboMom

Nothing "sells" the program better than bringing a robot and some team members to speak.

Here's another thread similar to yours that got some great feedback:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=38202

I hope that helps your advice search a bit. If you have specific questions you want me to answer let me know.

[Akash Rastogi]

Along with what Nica provided, this is one of the best collections of resources available outside of Chief Delphi.

[RyanN]

You're more well off then rookie teams. Rookie teams have all new members, so it can be done because every team was once a rookie.

[Mr. Pockets]

Have any of the graduating students ever shown interest in coming back as mentors? If so now would probably be a good time to hit them up.

Best of luck!

[Chris is me]

I would much rather suggest having all of the students buy Vex kits rather than Lego kits. It's a much more accurate-to-FRC way to train new members in the ways of competitive robotics, programming, subsystems, etc.

[cactuarman]

Thanks everyone for the advice. It all helps a lot. After posting here and receiving all the help and advice the problem doesn't seem as bad. I'm sure that with good recruiting and with help from mentors, other teams, and Chief Delphi we will have a successful year.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by cactuarman

Thanks everyone for the advice. It all helps a lot. After posting here and receiving all the help and advice the problem doesn't seem as bad. I'm sure that with good recruiting and with help from mentors, other teams, and Chief Delphi we will have a successful year.

I heard tell that an ice cream float does wonders for celebrating mind over matter, clear thinking, and asking for help and being gracious upon receiving it.

The rumor is that a coke float is the best with some of it dribbling down the sides of the tall glass and making a happy mess, but some people for some reason insist that root beer floats rule. I'm not so sure about that, myself, but I definitely trust the coke float rumor. With 3 scoops of vanilla ice cream.

Good luck with the team, they are lucky to have you,
Jane

[dtengineering]

Team turn-over is natural. Following our rookie year, every single student on the team graduated. I was the only mentor/teacher.

To say a team is in ruins because you'll have a lot of rookies is a significant overstatement. In sports that is called a "rebuilding" year.

Now, if you can't recruit some more people... yeah, that might be an issue. But that is pretty much an issue that is in your hands, isn't it?

Jason

[Cynette]

I'll join the consensus that meeting once a week is a good practice in the fall. You may want to also plan some extra times for some focus areas, like special time for programmers, animation, web page development, cad workshops, that sort of thing.

We also have mock build season sessions where we simulate the whole build season from game release through prototyping in an evening or two. That helps the team get the whole picture a little better as well as understand the urgency and connections between the different tasks.

Don't forget about team building, especially for a rebuilding year! You need to plan for activities that pull you into a cohesive unit so that when the stress of build season hits you don't fracture!

Good Luck!

[Donut]

Many helpful resources have already been posted, but as mentioned your team is not in ruins simply because knowledgeable members graduated. It is simply a year to rebuild, and you can even think of it as an opportunity to improve your team since you are forced to reorganize rather than doing things "because it's always been that way". You've already made a very important step in learning to use ChiefDelphi since there are very few other sources you can get such a wealth of information from.

And as Allan said, take advantage of your local teams. Powerhouses 842 and 39 are both here in Phoenix, and a number of Arizona FIRSTers frequent ChiefDelphi and can work with you here or in person (Freddi, Allan, the whole Forbes family, myself, Frank, Borna, and some others I'm sure I'm forgetting). We're to help and don't want to see any team falter!

Let us know your questions throughout the season and it's sure to be a good one.