I’ve always thought Band students would act worse then FIRST Teams…Our Marching Band stayed over night for festivle (120+ kids) and had no problem with people doing stupid things…we didn’t even have chaperones in the rooms. There were a few rooms of chaperones down the hall, but thats it. All they did was check to make sure we were in our room around 11:00 pm then they went to bed.
If a student is involved in FIRST, they should be able to handle themselved in a professional manner. If I was in the position of a mentor and had to deal with students misbehaving…
1st Infraction: Private Conversation with student and mentors.
2nd Infraction: Phone Call Home/Loss of Practipation for rest of event and season.
3rd Infraction: Expulsion from team (like school expulsion where you have to appeal to get back on and stuff).
The mentors shouldn’t need to monitor us 24/7. My team’s mentors are cool and realistic, and they expect us to be realistic back. Most FIRST teams are like that, but out of the 300 teams, probably 20 will have kids that are complete idiots and completely wild. I have a feeling most advisors aren’t going to tape kids in their room’s simply for the fact they trust their kids, and if their kids leave their room it’s for a good reason. (Like to get soda or candy out of a machine)
As far as not leaving the room except to talk stratgey and stuff is a little bit too much to ask. I’m sure the mentors of my team are going to be jokeing around and hanging out with the team 228 mentors, I’m goiing to be with friends from another team, theirs so much more stuff to do than worry about the compeition after you’re in the hotel. Even if your robot is majorly damaged, no sense dealing and worrying about stuff that you can’t change or fix until the next day. When we get to atlanta we have semi-major problems to figure out, but we won’t let that stop us from going bowling and having fun the night before the compeition or the nights of the compeition. If you’re worrying about robotics and stratgey 24/7 then it’s almost more stress than fun and not worth going.
Just my $0.02
(When i say “you”, “your”, “you’re” I mean people in general not speaking directly to BaldwinNYRookie)
People should be mature enough to know how to act in a hotel. Its unreasonable to expect everyone to do so all the time (heck, anyone can start talking a little louder subconsciously, laughing loud etc), and I understand that, but if you know you’re being annoying, go outside or at least stop doing it. I was unfortunate enough to be sitting in my hotel at the Midwest regional reading a book, and there was a really loud disturbance that was going on for at least 2 minutes. After about 30 seconds of being distracted, I slipped my shoes on and walked outside. They even apologized for the noise, but once I was back in they just continued to do it. At that point I just gave up.
But really, is it that hard to realize that people are trying to sleep in a hotel? It was only about 8:45, but still, its extremely impolite to be making such a racket, especially after you know you’re consciously making it. I couldn’t really tell what they were doing, but it wasnt just talking and laughing it was something else.
In chesapeake we were bad. But relative to all the other people there, we didn’t get security called on us, so I guess it wasn’t that bad. We only messed with people on our teams, never any other teams.
In Philly I guess we were all still tired from the Chesapeake regional, because it was really tame. They taped us in and that just made me angry, they had never done that in the past 2 years. Not that I wanted to go out and do anything. I just found the tape insulting. We still harassed each other with the phones though. The fake security/font desk calls are the best .
You just have to have kids have a mutual respect with the mentors. Our 2 main mentors are our schools machining teacher, and the CADD teacher. They both get the mutual respect of their students, and so we listen to them. The teachers that don’t get the mutual respect of the kids don’t get a lot of respect at all outside of school.
Were almost adults, treat us like ones, get mutual respect, and then they will listen to you with no problem.
Breaking a picture vs. threatening another student ( I know…it was “non-threatening” to you, but to him…who knows )
Either way, it sounds like you weren’t exactly innocent.
IT ISN’T THE STUDENT’S JOB TO DISCIPLINE OTHER STUDENTS.
That’s why God invented mentors. Let them do their jobs. If they have a problem with your team, there are lots of people they can go to for help. Lots of seasoned pros on these forums. Maybe you should just ask them to log on here if they think you have a problem.
If this situation happens in the future, I would urge you not to take matters into your own hands, call your mentor and have them deal with the situation.
-Collin Fultz
Good advice, worded in a mostly disrespectful way
Note for next post: do not answer to posts if you will post as inappropriately as that
When I read this thread, I didn’t ever expect to see something like that written by someone attending Purdue. I hope you apologize for that post, because I certainly know that wasn’t graciously professional. I am not bashing you, just letting you know that you need to watch the way you word what you post on here.
That’s really sad that your team doesn’t interact with other teams much after competition hours (although we all know that competition definately doesn’t end after you leave the arena…) just because of one person who takes it a bit too far. I encourage you guys to realize that there is moderation involved when it comes to hanging out with other teams, or your own team members even. Play when its time to play, enjoy other’s company, make friends, and work when its time to work.
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