Conflict with Mentor

[Kimmeh]

I've waited a while before posting this to allow myself some time to focus my thoughts as well as to distance myself from the situation. Some background information: This is my team's 3rd year, I'm a senior, and this is my second year on the team.

On many small teams, the Chairman's essay often becomes the task of a few individuals and that is no exception on my team. Since I've been on the team, that task has fallen to me. As I enjoy writing and working on the awards, it's not a big issue, especially when only a few students were interested in that aspect of the award. Regardless, the award has, more or less, become my project.

On the Wednesday before our first competition, one of our mentors, arrived at the shop (our build site) at about 8pm to pick students to work on the Chairman's display at his house. (Yes, it should have been done much earlier, but that's neither here nor there.) I asked him if he would bring me back to the shop once we were done. He said no, but he would take me home. I told him that I didn't want to go then, I'd rather finish the kicker for the robot. He then told me that if I didn't go, I wouldn't be able to present. I finally agreed to go after another mentor volunteered to pick me back up once I was done working on Chairman's. So I went.

The group of us arrived at his house. There, I discover there is someone else interested in joining the team and could be one of the people presenting. The meeting was largely unproductive as many of the students couldn't focus, however, we did manage to get the presentation outlined. At this point, it was already 10pm, and many students were about to be taken home. I called the mentor who offered to pick me up and returned to the shop to work on that blasted kicker. (We had some...issues with it.)

So, on Friday morning, I discover I'm not presenting. One of the presenters was the new person I mentioned. She has never shown up at a meeting, knows very little about the team, or what we've done, and, hasn't shown up since. In fact, she wasn't at the second day of competition either.

So now, the members of Chief Delphi, what would be the best way to go about confronting the mentor in question? I feel that I should have been entitled to be one of the presenters. Not only is it my last year on the team, but I spent hours working on the award, when my time and energy could have been greatly used by other parts of my team.

Please note, I'm not asking for criticism on our Chairman's “process” as I know it needs a LOT of work and better time management. I'm asking for the best way to professionally address this issue.

Thank you,
Kimberly