Your Worst FIRST experience

[Joshua May]

Originally Posted by Richomundo

What was your worst first experience? I love FIRST, but i have had my equal share of good and bad experiences.

Mine was when i was temporarily kicked off of the team for sabotaging a bowl of cashews. We built our robot at the team captains house because we had nowhere else to build it. We weren't allowed to build the robot at school because the Shop Supervisor hated the lady that ran our team... but anyways thats besides the point. I was kicked off the team for a total of 6 hours, approximately a week before our Los ANgeles Regional... Since the high school only had 5 members willing to be on the team this year (not one student from last year, which kind of tells you something) we imported 3 8th graders to help us build our robot and join the team early because 5 people can't build a robot. So apparently i sabotaged a can of cashews by filling it up with water. Now being a mature high school student, drowning cashews isn't my thing. Sounds like an 8th grade thing to do, not a 10th grade thing to do. So i was kicked off and (being the only programmer there ) i was also told i had never been an asset eve nthough i had done programming. At the LA regional our team had no motivation because we had been belittled and attacked by this woman etc etc etc... after our rounds were over we hooked up a few laptops and played starcraft against eachother and proceeded home. No party, no celebration, and definately no spirit to return next year.

However the FIRST experience was fun enough for the dissatisfied members of the team (everyone) to branch off and form another robotics team for next year.

My team built last year's robot with 4 people.

I can't really think of a bad FIRST experience, really, I can't.

[Richomundo]

Originally Posted by HHSJosh

My team built last year's robot with 4 people.

I can't really think of a bad FIRST experience, really, I can't.

Well FIRST is GREAT i love FIRST but it was my team that sucked. so maybe the thread should be changed to "Every team has had dysfunctions, what was your worst?"

[Bharat Nain]

Well my worst experience in FIRST was during the build season when our team advisor(WayneC) got a stroke. It was hard to manage but when a team is a team, anything is possible. So we got thru the Build season with the HUGE load of problems, we survived

[Mike Ciance]

Originally Posted by TeknoBramha

Well my worst experience in FIRST was during the build season when our team advisor(WayneC) got a stroke. It was hard to manage but when a team is a team, anything is possible. So we got thru the Build season with the HUGE load of problems, we survived

i have to agree with Bharat here, this the early part of this season were some of the team's darkest hours, mainly because of Cokeley's stroke, but him not being there also had a bad effect on the team's operation. I think we handled it fairly well, but it still hurt us a lot. When Cokeley was incapacitated, it really emphasized how important he is to the team, and how much he does for all of us. He's really an amazing guy. He is so dedicated to our team. He got hospital leave, after some convincing, and attended the New Jersey Regional ALL THREE DAYS with a walker and an eyepatch. All the shifts in command caused problems that surfaced later, and Mr. C handled them as best anyone could. If you're in need of a role model, talk to Wayne Cokeley.

aside from that, i think my worste FIRST experience, at least at the time, was in the 2002 Nationals when I temporarily lost my job as "Battery Mike." We were ziptying the battery plugs into the plug on the robot because they would come out sometimes. There was one battery in particular, #2, where the cord was very short, and it had always worried me. It was my job to change the batteries and ziptie the plugs so they could not possibly come out. Well, in one of the qualification rounds something went wrong. I used battery #2. It had been fine in other rounds, but this time I messed up. The robot lost power the instant it started. I was accused of not tightening the ziptie and fired as battery boy. It was a mystery to me, at first, how this had happened, but over time i figured out the whole chain of events based on other experiences and careful thinking. The battery cord was short - when I put that battery in I usually had to put hard to get it to click. That time I didn't realize it was the #2 battery and didn't push hard enough - it was never fully in. When I ziptied it, I didn't tighten the ziptie as much as I should have. With this little bit of extra space, the plug had enough room to pull out more, and the metal stopped touching, causing complete power loss to the robot. There were some other stories going around as to how it happened. Somebody told me that a member of the drive team had changed the battery after I left and done it wrong. Whatever the error, I was just glad when it was all over. Our head engineer, Mike Lubniewski (the guy TeknoBrahma claims to be) came over and apologized to me, and told me I could be the battery boy again. I finished up the season as battery boy, and was officially named "Battery Man" by Big Mike.

[Joshua May]

Originally Posted by afflictionblade

i have to agree with Bharat here, this the early part of this season were some of the team's darkest hours, mainly because of Cokeley's stroke, but him not being there also had a bad effect on the team's operation. I think we handled it fairly well, but it still hurt us a lot. When Cokeley was incapacitated, it really emphasized how important he is to the team, and how much he does for all of us. He's really an amazing guy. He is so dedicated to our team. He got hospital leave, after some convincing, and attended the New Jersey Regional ALL THREE DAYS with a walker and an eyepatch. All the shifts in command caused problems that surfaced later, and Mr. C handled them as best anyone could. If you're in need of a role model, talk to Wayne Cokeley.

Now that is a worst FIRST experience, but it did seem to come out OK.

[Solace]

our team has had its problems, but the worst was probably the rookie year. though we had some funding, unrealistic engineers who didn't understand the concept of a deadline, accompanied by a steadily decreasing student interest, almost doomed our entire team. It was only because one individual finally stood up and singlehandedly built the robot (in the last two weeks) that we were able to pull through. It wasn't that bad of a bot either, we managed to take it on to win the rookie all star award at NYC in 2001. In the end, it wasn't a bad year because we did badly, but because no one really had any fun/

Our team dynamic has since improved dramatically, and we've managed to integrate students much more exstensively into the build process. However, the effects of that first year were long lasting, and it was only very slowly that we evolved to the state in which we could enjoy FIRST in the way it was intended.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by TeknoBramha

but when a team is a team, anything is possible.

That was our fatal flaw this year, IMHO.

I'd guess about twenty of us were at Palmetto, and I think only one or two of us were cheering, except during our match, when the number would jump to about five.

[Lisa Perez]

This wasn't during the FIRST season, but during the time period we had to turn in our registration fee. My worst experience was when my coach took me and my co-captain aside to tell us that there would be no 573 for the 2004 season. I came out of the room teary-eyed and wanting to punch a wall..

But we were still able to participate in FIRST on 1! So I guess out of all bad things come something good.

[Joe Matt]

I've had loads of bad experences, but hey, that's part of ANY group. I won't post them here, ones that pertain to our team and other teams. But I just wanted to post to say that you are not alone, there are problems, as is anything that's run by people who have emotions and egos.

[Will Hanashiro]

hmm... my worst FIRST experiance would have to be when i got my fingernail ripped off on a surface grinder. but it also showed me that we were much more than a team, but we were a family. the concern that came after me being in the hospital was overwhelming... and it made me proud to be part of a wonderful family. in the end, my fingernail grew back, and the family is as strong as ever.

realizing that my driving career on 322 has come to an end is also kind of depressing, but i'm also looking foward to the contributions that i can give as a college mentor.

[Barry Bonzack]

My team had some issues this year as well. Working our hearts out for 6 weeks, and ending up with a robot that didn't move all UCF regional wasn't even the worst of them. However, of course, I am totally addicted to FIRST, and the good always outweighs the bad. I'll deffinately be back next season.

[Mike Schroeder]

My Worst FIRST experinence is probobly reading this thread, if its anything that FIRST's competitive spirit has taught me, its to take the good with the bad,
Telling 1500+ people your worst experince isnt gonna change them, the only thing that can change them, is by learning from these mistakes/bad experince,

All i have to say is that this isn't very Inspiring

[-PauL-]

oh god.....in atlanta, we were hanging out in my friends room around 10 that night, and it was pure hell. there was alot of stuff going on between the team members, so people were coming in and out, crying, yelling..... we just wanted to watch a movie. Anyway, we started to kick people out, and not let them in. well, one kid on out team, who was somewhat large wanted to come in the room. we wouldnt let him, and we closed the shades on him. after a few minutes, we hear a knock on the window, so we open it up, and he had his pants down right on the window, shaking it up and down.......there are some things you just cant unsee.......**shudders**....as for the competition, nothin's bad really, except when the FIRST cordinators are on a power trip, it gets really annoying....thats about it

[Lisa Perez]

I have one more! But it's probably more of a funny/scary experience. Anyway.

We were just walking back from a restaurant in Cleveland last year, the day before the Buckeye Regional. For some reason, the team splits up. Oh yeah, someone had to stop by 7-11. Getting back on track, so 10 of us are walking back to the hotel, 5 are walking elsewhere. It turns out that this guy who just got released from jail approaches the other group, shows them his jail ID (at the same time saying "Want to see my jail ID?"), and asks them for money. Obviously, they ran like no other.

So we get back to the hotel at around the same time because we started running as well (just because it was dark and we were getting creeped out by some very, very sketchy people) and the other group tells us the story. But it was pretty funny afterwards, we started sneaking up on and scaring the living daylights out of each other. We always manage to turn a bad situation into a good one..

[sanddrag]

One bad experience (I wouldn't say the worst) was at the 2004 Phoenix regional when we broke our pneumatic relief valve. Not one team in the arena had a spare relief valve. Spare parts did not have one spare relief valve. We even offered to trade team members for the relief valve. There was not one spare relief valve anywhere in that arena. We lost probably 2 or 3 matches just due to that.

Anyway, a sort of scary experience was when we had to go to the Six Points Hardware store to get a new one. This guy told us it was about a block away. It's great he told us about it, otherwise we would have been out for the regional. Anyway, luckily an arena staff employee gave us a ride on the golf cart out to the street. But from then on, it got a little scary. We go out in the street and there are a bunch of "questionable figures" lingering about the sidewalk. I really wanted to go back behind that gate of the arena parking lot but I knew we needed that valve. Luckily I had my friend (this really big guy) with me but even still I kept my hand in my pocket on my leatherman tool knife for the whole way there. By now you can probably tell this wasn't the best part of town. Run down buildings, grafiti, etc. Anyway, looking for the hardware store (which was supposed to be a block away), we got a little lost because it was more like 5 blocks away and Phoenix has big blocks. On the way there, we encountered a new "Adult" store opening just a couple doors down. The payoff of this adventure was when we got to the hardware store. This was like the absolute greatest hardware store I have ever been to. And they had our valve. Once we got the valve, we went back the way we came. Very soon, we encountered a very deranged man yelling "Five Dolla Bubble! Five Dolla Bubble!" And he had a bubble gun and was running through traffic spraying bubbles everywhere. When he saw us, he started coming toward us trying to sell us some bubbles. We went the other way, and then so did he. Finally we just picked up the pace and dodged down an alley. That wasn't the greatest idea. There was this homelss guy coming down the alley with a shopping cart full of who knows what. When we tried to stay on the side to avoid him, he moved over. Luckily he passed us without incident, but that is because he was too busy cleaning his crack pipe! We eventually got back to the arena parking lot to where we walked in the driveway. There was a car coming out and for some reason my friend stands in the middle of the driveway with his hand out like he's a policeman or someting (my friend gets stupid ideas like he's a cop sometimes). My friend then steps aside and the car takes off with the guy screaming profanity and making obscene gestures. Anyway, the guy in this car obviously not with FIRST. Then we got back inside, installed the valve, and it has worked like a charm ever since.

Some story huh?

EDIT: I forgot to ad that on our way to the hardare store, on every telephone pole there was a wanted add for this guy for homicide. Then on a couple poles there were a couple different wanted ads too. Scary huh?