Sippin' on the haterade

[ebarker]

I feel the need to jump in on this. There were definitely some teams floating around with some attitude.

For those of you out in CD land, 1311 and 1771 were on the same alliance and I'm glad to say, alliance captain. For years it has been our goal to catch up with 1771. I'm comfortable saying we finally got there.

Instead of sitting around whining, this team worked their butts off. Very often starting before the sun rises, and ending late at night.

About money. We stretch money till it screams. If you walk around a typical event, there is a ga-gillion dollars worth of parts being thrown around in boxes like the daily trash. You don't need a ton of money to be successful. You need a ton of resourcefulness. We count and inventory every part all the way down to the lock washer. It is a crime how many teams treat their parts and tools.

Resourceful - guess what one of the factors was in keeping this team #1 seeded ? TWO RUBBER BANDS.

If you look at our sponsor board, half or more is material or services "in-kind" which is as good as cash. Money is an on-going struggle. People think we are rich and we are definitely not. Straining every day.

The students own this program, hardware, software, and Chairman's in a HUGE way. My personal goal is to spend time this summer and learn how the students designed this robot in Inventor. We don't have single mentor on the team that knows how.

This link take you to our Chairman's video, but if you take the first 15 seconds, and substitute 'Chairman's' for 'Robot'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-4FA5RBWVg

A large point in this video is to work hard, think hard, and have fun doing it.