After spending the last couple hours browsing the CD forums, I am petrified about the progress my team is making so far. How often, if ever, do you feel the same as I?
There was supposed to be a poll, but for some reason, it didn’t show and I’m too lazy to make another thread.
I feel like my team is behind right now because we have to meet off site for the first week or two weeks of build season because of our schools exams 
this happened to us last year too…
We build 2 days after school 4-7 and Satruday 9-3. I usually feel like we are behind and this year we have missed several meetings due to snow. We do require students to focus, use time wisely and work hard. We do not allow adults to do the work or designing. Team 1098 is student designed, student built. No professional work at all. They always manage to get it all done and last year 2nd in St Louis.
So Yes you are not the only one feeling the pressure.
Oh I just found out that tomorrows meeting is canceled, SNOW…OH NO!!!
Well, during the first week of build season we lost 2 days to snow. Saturday, we only had 2 students and 2 adults. Then we lost Monday due to the holiday. Nothing happened on Tuesday for some reason(s) {exams being one of them} and then today only 2 people were able to work (only one student, me) again due to exams. Are we behind? In my opinion, no, but we will be at this pace. We have a good minibot prototype and a frame with wheels (but no chains, sprockets, or motors). It seems like nobody plans on going to any meetings this week, of the three years I have been on the team this is the most I’ve seen exams affect attendance. I really hope the reason is truly because of exams and not the 90 minute gap between exams and the meeting or “because nobody else will be there” because 1) I don’t like being called nobody, and 2) because that shows a serious lack of motivation and interest.
Pretty much every minute of everyday, every season.
was gona say this word for word
I suppose it’s a bit frustrated because I see teams that are already preparing final products and practicing, but I don’t think that complaining about progress in week 2 is fair.
Talk to me, or someone else on the team, in week 4.
Our team kept a 1-2 meeting per week schedule through the main part of our FTC build and attendance to any extra meetings was less than desirable (apparently some people don’t check email hourly, daily, or even monthly in some cases??!??!!).
Using that as an indicator for FRC, I was really concerned, but the team has done a great job this past week with our Monday-Thursday (6-9) and Saturday(8-12) schedule. We’ve had an outstanding turnout of mentors and team members alike especially considering the size of our team.
Does that mean I feel like we’re not behind?
Of course not.
So long as you have a plan to finish a bot and you are meeting your schedule everyday you know you are going to be fine. Its tough seeing all these teams that already have so much done but every team moves at its own pace. We don’t build a single part of our bot until the start of week 3 and we’ve finished as early as week 4. It’s all about having a plan and going at your own pace and dealing with the eventual chaos that is build season.
I am pretty relaxed as usual. I got nothing done on Saturday through Tuesday. But I still am not worried. I got all the logistics done so I can just wait for the other programmers to do their part.
Last year I worried a lot about whether we were going finish all the things we wanted to. I think one of the biggest things FIRST has given me is how to handle the stress of a deadline. (Not that I couldn’t still use a lot of improvement :o ) Last year we lost 11 days from the snow storm and we aren’t allowed to meet on the days before midterms. But it all worked out in the end. We didn’t end up with all the features we would have liked but what team did?
We don’t really catch up until sometime in May, in a bad year it is June or July.
I always feel that we are behind, especially this year with lots of things to complete. Last year we finished the day before ship date and everything worked out. I think it is human nature to worry about being behind.
Week 1 thru 5 ::safety::
Week 6 :ahh:
I always worry about being behind. Then everything magically works out every year.
Honestly, I always wish we made more progress than we do.
Reality is, NEVER compare your progress with other teams. It will only stress you out and slow you down.
All teams work at different paces and it changes from year to year.
If you have a schedule, stick to it as best you can.
From my experience, most teams rally in the eleventh hour and get it done, almost.
My old mentor Bill Beatty used to let us in on some secrets every once and awhile.
Rule #1: Fall behind early
Some member of our team are really worried this year, because we are really pushing ourselves this year to build a robot that can take us to St. Louis.
(And no, it’s not because we think we HAVE to, or anyone’s forcing us. We just think we owe it to ourselves to keep building on the successes we have had, and the next step is winning a regional.)
In all of this fear and sorts, we are miles ahead of the last two years. We usually start build in the heat of exam week, but we started preliminary build last Saturday (we built the C-Base bot and have been calibrating the sensors and testing equipment), and an FTC team is coming in to help us next week with our minibot. Our prototypes have looked great as well.
I think design finalization is tomorrow!
As our build leader said, “No one can understand my happiness.”
What do you mean behind?
You mean there is a deadline???
I better read the rules…
just kidding…
We are always behind…but in a good way
Serious answer:
I generally start feeling that we’re behind somewhere in early May. This feeling intensifies around January, and then lets up in mid-late April.
More serious answer:
The interesting thing about Logomotion is that it isn’t hard to build a robot to do everything required of it this year. The hard part is building a robot that can do all those things better than everyone else’s robot…
Which means that all of us are behind, no matter where we’re at! :eek: