No Mentors..

[Josh Fox]

What might be a good start is to go to parents on the team first, and if anyone works for an engineering related business have them ask around at work to see if they would be interested.

[Basel A]

It would probably be a good idea to contact your Regional Director, talk to teams around you, and in general network wherever you can for mentors (parents, local engineering businesses, technical education teachers, etc.).

if you're asking for advice as to how to run a team without mentors.. That's not exactly my expertise, but regardless I'd guess it's a rather difficult task. I know there are teams that get by without engineers, some of them active on Chief Delphi, so hopefully they'll be able to more specifically help you out.

[MrForbes]

842 won the Championship Chairman's Award with no engineering mentors on their team.....

Ask parents, etc.

If you are helping the team and have technical questions, there are a bunch of knowledgeable mentors here on CD who will help you figure things out.

[raytexans]

I think I wanted to:

1) Be assured that it is possible to get through this first year without the engineers

and

2) see if there was someplace particular I could run as fast as possible to and yell HELP!!!! when that moment arises.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by raytexans

I think I wanted to:

1) Be assured that it is possible to get through this first year without the engineers

and

2) see if there was someplace particular I could run as fast as possible to and yell HELP!!!! when that moment arises.

The answer to both 1 and 2 is yes. Yes, you can. It may not be pretty but it is doable and you have wonderful people in Texas who can help you. I've sent Andrew Schuetze a pm since you will be attending the Alamo Kickoff. Look at the list that Chris Fultz gave you.
You'll want to become acquainted with the FIRST website, esp. the FRC sections. That might be something for you and the 7 people traveling with you to Kickoff to do for homework this week. Look at the first part of the manual that has been released, check the deadline dates for various things, check out the virtual mentor list. Make sure you are signed up in TIMS. If you don't know what that is, ask us.


You can do this.

Jane

P.S. Kevin, he answered that the team is traveling to the Alamo Kickoff.

[Jon236]

Originally Posted by squirrel

842 won the Championship Chairman's Award with no engineering mentors on their team.....

842's teacher is quite an outstanding mentor in my estimation; inspiration is what it is all about!

[Jason Law]

I think you guys are in Texas? Look around, see if there are any veteran teams that may be able to offer advice if/when you need it. Also take a look at this:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=87994

While I haven't looked in depth in this, FRSee looks like a place that you might be able to get help from.

If you have any other questions, please ask! (or PM me)

Hope this helps,

Jason Law

[wilsonmw04]

We started our fist year without a mentor. After three weeks of going it alone, we paired up with another team that met 30 minutes away. They were gracious enough to allow us to use there build site, access to their mentors and ever made parts for us. The biggest thing I learned during those few weeks was how a good FIRST FRC team is run. There has to be at least one team in your area that would be willing to help you out. It was mentioned before: check with your regional director. Also, check TIMS. They don't have the "Are you willing to mentor a team?" question for nothing! If you don't get any takers in Texas, drop me a line and i'll help you out in any way I can.

[ebarker]

Don't panic, it is a solvable problem.

1st) There are 3 other FRC teams in your immediate area. Collegiate High School Robotics Team, Innovation Academy for Engineering, Environmental & Marine Science, and Collegiate High School. You can use this to locate more teams: http://usfirst.org/whatsgoingon.aspx

2nd) Contact your regional director. They can help with pairing rookie / veteran teams. They may also be able to provide a little help in matching mentors to the team.

3rd) Ask parents to pitch in, technical and non-technical.

4th) Read the manual. REALLY read the manual especially on the robot rules and game rules !!

http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/...nt.aspx?id=452

and here are technical resources
http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/...nt.aspx?id=478

5th) Chief Delphi is here....

[Chris Fultz]

FIRST has started a "Virtual Mentors" program for 2011 also.

There may be people in your area. If not, these are experienced mentors who can be available for calls and support.

Here is the link from Bills Blog.

https://my.usfirst.org/FIRSTPortal/L...ual_login.aspx

[CrazyCarl461]

Though it is my opinion that every team should have a good technical mentor to get the most out of the program, it is not necessarily required to have a successful season or, at the very least, a rewarding experience.

Use the available resources mentioned earlier and to track down whoever your can, FIRST alums are hiding everywhere these days! I'd probably build the kit-bot chassis (a good, solid chassis for beginners) and keep your mechanisms simple and robust. The majority of the problems I've seen rookies have at competition aren't so much from lack of robot functionality, but rather lack of reliability.

And of course, pay attention to the other areas of team development, there could be a Rookie All-Star Award in your future which would be a nice boost for many successful years to follow.

Oh ya, check Chief Delphi every day!

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by CrazyCarl461

Use the available resources mentioned earlier and to track down whoever your can, FIRST alums are hiding everywhere these days!

Carl,
For the benefit of our readers, can you go into a little bit about FIRST alumni and what that means - where they can be found? Also - maybe the benefit of college mentors? Also - one more thing - explain the kit-bot. What that means.

Thank you. It would be a good reference for rookies/new teams.

Jane

[Andrew Schreiber]

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ighlight=lingo Jane asked me to post this thread (I think this was the right one).

I also went through and found some of the old threads/resources/links.

http://www.team358.org/files/mechani...nRefTables.jpg - Drive train reference tables, might not be accurate anymore but can be useful for demonstrating the concepts.

http://picasaweb.google.com/RoboticW...67714923582722 Lewis's gallery, one of the best places for robot pictures I have found. (I've heard things about Pat Fairbank's but don't have a link.)

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...32&postcount=1 Something I think is important.

Finally, an introduction to our friend Dave Lavery.

Editted: Found the right link.

[JaneYoung]

Thank you for providing helpful links to information, Andrew.

Jane

[CrazyCarl461]

FIRST Alumni are anyone who has participated in FIRST in high school or, in the case of college-run teams, participated as a college mentor and are no longer involved with a team. This is usually because they move to a new city and start working a fresh new job and FIRST gets pushed down the priority list. I have dozens of friends from Purdue alone who are now scattered around the country working and going about their non-FIRST lives. Sometimes they can be brought back into the program if approached by a local team. 461 recently got an engineer from the local Caterpillar plant who was on a team in another city to stop by meetings this fall.

I'm not sure where FIRST gets their list of potential mentors willing to help, but it probably has something to do with the push the past few years (Dean's homework) to gather information about team alumni. The form had a place to indicate if you would be willing to continue involvement in the future.

College mentors are a similar case, they are usually former high school participants who want to continue the experience. We have found this is a good way to keep getting an infusion of different design philosophies from different teams from around the country every few years.

As for the kit bot, that will make more sense when you pick up your rookie version of the kit of parts. It includes a bolt-together chassis frame that is pre-built to be within the size constraints and work with bumpers, kit gearboxes and kit wheels. It limits you a little in design configurations but it provides a robust drive system that takes only minutes to set up, allowing you to focus completely on the other robot mechanisms. It is also a good way to get something up and driving to give your team practice driving and using the cRio platform early in the build season.