Most undervalued job

[colin340]

the team's advisory
you can't imagine the stuff they have to do most of them put in so much time
and sleep
even on are team's that are both student lead and run
the team's advisory still has to do so much just to give the right first experience
we love you guys

[FunkyRatDemon]

Animation Team- They're the bud of all of our jokes, yet they finished on time (unlike our build team).

Opeartaions-If someones gone, people wonder why they;re not there. When they show, people give no gratitude.
(Operations is a team division for people who don't built the robot , yet assist in all other duties like Field Construction and Clean Up.)

Mascot-People don't realize how hot these outfits get!

Chairmans-People think that building a robot is all that matters...

Public Relations- Many people thaink that money grows on trees, yet I beg to differ.

Website Team-Do these people even need to show up? They add pics to the web...WOW!(sarcasm)

[1359th Scalawag]

I would have to say the human player was the least recognized. The human player can very well be one of the most important roles on the drive team because without him, you wouldn't get tubes so easily. Because the common perception on my team is that anybody could have done it our human player didn't get much recognition but getting the tubes onto the feild in the right spot can save tons of time and be that little thing that wins the match.

This year, I was the strategist. On my team, I got enough recognition to satisfy but I dont think people understand how important the strategist is. Good strategies are what win championships and I would say that the strategist has the most stressfull job. While the drivers may only have 2 minutes of stress every 10 minutes, the strategist has to work in-between matches with alliance members to create the best possible strategy. Then a match comes and the second it's over, you start again.
The only times I had any rest during the Portland and Sacramento regionals was during lunch and after all our matches were done. It's not as easy as you'd think.

As for the Safety Person, our safety person had alot of recognition. She was by far the most spirited person on our team and was constantly walking through the pits saying "Arr, dont forget your safety glasses, mateys!" For Friday, she made thank-you posters for all the volenteers and they awarded her "Safety Person of the Day" She was mentioned in an article about us in our local newspaper. She was probably given more recognition than any other member on our team.

[mizscience]

Originally Posted by 1359th Scalawag

I would have to say the human player was the least recognized. The human player can very well be one of the most important roles on the drive team because without him, you wouldn't get tubes so easily. Because the common perception on my team is that anybody could have done it our human player didn't get much recognition but getting the tubes onto the feild in the right spot can save tons of time and be that little thing that wins the match.

I definately agree. When the average FIRSTer thinks of a drive team, they mention the two drivers and the mentor, often overlooking the human player as an insignificant role in the grand scheme of things. Human player is definately one of the more undervalued jobs on a team...

[Po-ser]

Definitely the person who keeps the pit clean.

This year we made the job much easier for this person and for ourselves. Check out what my co-captain made!

http://rassi.ath.cx/stuypulse/view_p...eek-1&id=Tools

[MWTrek]

I think the most undervalued job on our team is the job done by our main mentor. He had to make sure he knew where everyone was and the game plan for the rest of the day while performing his duties in the pit. This year we had very few non-engineering mentors attend our Atlanta. The job that these two mentors did was invaluable but i think was overlooked my most if not all of the people on our team. Nice work!!!

[Rapt0r9]

Probably electrical. This includes the battery people and programmers. Our teams big problem is our tendency to wait to the last minute to get things done. So mechanical is finishing their work the first day of competition and electrical has to scramble to wire everything in the course of an hour. Overall it isn't that bad, but the head of our electrical sub team would have you think otherwise.

During competition one of the mentors would yell to him, "Is electrical done yet?" evey three minutes. He had a assortment of repsonses, but the one I remember was, "Mechanicall had 400 hours, we have 4."

[geeknerd99]

SORRY, LATE NIGHT POST. (I shot photos of 5 soccer games an hour away today. It's been a long day, but this is a topic I'd really like to share my thoughts about)

Originally Posted by Rapt0r9

Probably electrical.

(omitted for space considerations)

During competition one of the mentors would yell to him, "Is electrical done yet?" evey three minutes. He had a assortment of repsonses, but the one I remember was, "Mechanicall had 400 hours, we have 4."

Mentors: "How's the electrical team doing so far?"

Me: "We can't really wire the robot up if we don't have a robot to work on"

Mentor: "You always say that. Have you guys accomplished anything else?"

Laura: "Yeah. We redesigned the electronics board, AGAIN, since you guys redesigned the frame. AGAIN."

(this marked the 7th or 8th time we'd redesigned it, wire layouts and everything)

Sometimes, I really feel that the people that are truly devoted to the team are the ones most undervalued. This includes me and my electronics/programming team, and everyone else in the computer lab, which includes the CAD people (oh, are they useful, I can't thank them enough), and the animators. Alright, so I still don't really see the point in doing the animation, but still, they put in A LOT of work this year. I just don't reall get how it fits in with the rest of our team.

While we're on the topic of undervaluing things, I really feel that a recurring problem on teams is the mechanical guys not appreciating the rest of the team. Like, on the Saturday before ship, the entire electrical and CAD/Animation teams showed up bright and early at 8AM, after about a 20 minute drive for many of us, and the first shreds of the rest of the team showed up at 2PM. No joke. I don't think I've ever been more pissed at my teammates than that day before. I guess it was the following tidbit that set me off:

Mentor: "So, what electrical stuff did you guys accomplish?"

Me : "Actually, we had to pull everyone even from CAD and animation to help build the robot, since we have to have a robot to work on first. Where on earth were you guys?" (Note that this quote has been translated to a more CD-friendly version)

Mentor: "Sleeping!" (In this I-Don't-Care-That-We-Ship-Out-Tuesday manner)

Me:

And one last bit before I go to bed (I'm really just rambling here, bear with me), I really hate the people that don't show up the entire build season, maybe turn a few screws with a few days before ship, and then think they can drive the robot better than the team-leadership designated drive team. Especially considering that this year we ran mecanum. Driving is hard work. It's fun, but it's also no fun when the entire team blames you for failure. People with the ambition that Oooh! Me! I wanna drive! usually don't realize this.

I choose to accept the role as driver not because it's like a real-live video game that I really wanna play. I drive because a part of my soul is in that robot, a part that apparently the leadership recognized as strong potential. Believe me. If I wasn't recommended to drive (or the best driver, or the person that designed everything related to the driving, for that matter), I wouldn't drive on field unless someone had a gun to my head. Sometimes it's great, but it's actually more depressing than fun.

Alright, sleepy time.

Long story short: Most undervalued people: CAD, animators, and programming/electrical. Most undervaluing people: the people that claim to "build" the robot as their job (isn't it everyone's job?) and the people that never show up/do anything.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by geeknerd99

Me: "We can't really wire the robot up if we don't have a robot to work on"

I don't know about that. Lots of teams seem to have been able to develop a self-contained "electrical box" module that holds everything except the motors and sensors. We haven't gone quite to that level yet, but our drivebase last year was designed to give us a large, flat area inside it for the electrical components. We actually wired most of the 'bot a week before the drivebase itself was ready, and we built a duplicate electrical "floor" for our planned practice 'bot at the same time.

[Joe J.]

I can say from experience that the most undervalued job is the position that my team called our Pit Chief, the years I held the position it entailed supervision of all aspects of robot build, cleaning and organizing the workshop, and recording build season hours.

[popo308]

Originally Posted by BuddyB309

I here you bro. The first year our team did animation i was the only one who wanted to do it. I almost got myself kicked off the team (we had a different team cordinator back then) Now most of the mechanical people think we waste time.

Another undervauled job is the Spirit team and the Promotions team. Our mechanical gurus were talking on the way home "Im so glad our spirit team didnt come up with something stupid to wear, I wouldnt wear it" I tried to convince them that teams who do crazy stuff like that have a whole lot of fun. but no one wants to do it. So i barrow other teams crazy things to wear and have fun with it.

Same people think its all about the robot and durring the off season make designs and stuff for next years robot. None of them ever look to community service or other stuff like that. And why is everyone afraid of giving presentations?

I would have to agrees although i am some what happy our spirit team didnt go over the top with costumes and stuff. I wouldnt mind a little but sometimes costumes can just be to much.

[Sam Cat]

I would have to say the animation team isn't valued anywhere near as much as they should be. These guys put in just as many hours as the build team, if not more. They put some much work into the animations and they always come out fantastic. They are probably some of the most dedicated and least remembered members. This year, they spent hours literally watching grass grow (it was part of our Think Green animation)! Since they work in a different room, we kinda sorta forgot to take their dinner orders. We did go back later once we realized our mistake, but we felt pretty terrible for forgetting them. They did get recognized with several animation awards in the past two years (including National Safety Animation Award 2007 - go animation team!), but I don't think they are respected as much as they should be on our team.

Let's try to correct these problems and give everyone on our teams the credit they deserve. Everyone is forgotten at one point, but it's important to make an effort so that it happpens as little as possible. We are a team, and each member on it is important, no matter how small their job may seem.

[Warren Boudreau]

Without a doubt: Drill Bit Sorter.

Other underappreciated jobs include scouting, battery person, pit boss.

[LightWaves1636]

Defiantly room clean up for us. Our coach nicknamed five of us the core(aka the Drive Crew) because we stay the entire time from build to clean up and it really gets to us how we noticed a majority of our other members make sure they leave a half hour before we start cleaning up the place because we have two classrooms, an autoshop garage, offices, and etc. to clean up because members who come and don't stay the entire time just leave their mess thinking, "oh the night crew will get it.", *sigh*.

[BadameAmie]

I am with you on that one Warren the person who sorts the drill bits...

but I feel that most of the jobs undervalued... you really don't know how much work is put into the job until you do it so most people think it is easier than it looks and don't give them enough credit