I agree the over dedication to the point where no one else contributes would definitely be a bad thing. Some teams (like ours) have a small group of ‘core’ members that fill up leadership roles and take a unequal weight of the work on their shoulders. I can see how a this would be a problem when the ‘core’ team graduates. So my take on the issue:
Over dedication is good as long as you are soooo dedicated to the team that you’ll prepare the team for success even after you leave.
[boy I hate to have to do this but]
FIRST is OVER - the championship was two weeks ago!
GO HOME!
GET LOST!
I DONT LIKE YOU ANYMORE! Go find something else to do till next january
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[looks around - are they gone? now I’ll have no one to talk to until next year]
um… guys… hey wait for me… dont leave me here by myself
hello?!
ok you can hang around in the chitchat forum, but thats all
Over dedication is good as long as you are soooo dedicated to the team that you’ll prepare the team for success even after you leave.
Im not too worried about my replacement. He is a little hyper and really tends to think big. He told me he wanted to install a water cooling system for our drill motors. :ahh:
Yeah Im pathetic. My uncle sends me his old tools(caliper and micrometer from Sears) that he used to create bullets. I know they must be good because my uncle is still in one piece. I literrally spent 400 to 500 dollars on robotics books. The sad fact is that I just learned the company that I buy these books from is a sponsor for a team.
hrm? over addicted to a team / FIRST — yep thats me :(. I mean it isn’t a bad thing to be addicted to something that you enjoy doing and enjoy helping others do what you have done. However you have to remember:
If your a graduated member from the team - you are considered a team alumni and are welcome to continue to support the team, just so long as you don’t consider your self a team player. (Driver or any other Team Roles out there).
If your not a graduated member from the team [still in hs] - your addiction is not a huge problem b/c your coaches and captain / president expect to see you alot of work for the team. whether its just you or a group of people.
As my ex-coach would always tell the visitors going to see the team that have asked about past and current members… “They would take the door off the hinges if I didn’t let them in” this would apply for both the alumni & current members.
It has become tradition to wait in front of the school @ 6am and wait for the coaches to arrive so that robotics work can get underway. Normal Robotics close up time would be around 3:30pm if there wasn’t a meeting. And during build season the days would usually end 6-7pm and continued work on a saturday / holiday if whether and school personal permitted.
As you can see by the above statements, It’s quite normal to be a dedicated member b/c in the end the job gets done whether you helped / watched / or did it yourself. I wish that these so called Vet Teams could go up against multiple alumni teams.
For instance an “X” amount of team members from “X” amount of teams may form one team. and another set of team members from various teams may form another team etc… After all the Alumni members have a team that they;re on. they may build a robot during build season and have a mini-compeitition going up against the regional champions / finalists and Championship Champions from the year b4. This would not only help solve some addiction but would also see how much we have learned from our coaches, and fellow teams in how to build a successful robot and team. However Funding may play an issue.
Reguardless this sounds like a decent idea.
I personally have put in over 100 hours overtime into the building of this years robot, I show up to all the meetings even on the weekends except Sunday (race day NASCAR).In fact the only day i missed last year was a religious holiday, the Daytona 500.LOL. And those 100 hours are all after school and does not include the time i put in during my engineering class. However i am not the only one. we have about 15 people and mentors that have just as many if not more hours than i do. I don’t think this is a bad thing, we get things done when they have to be done, and we always have atleast one or two people from each sub team.
Overdedication:
It can be good, as it enables the things to be done more quickly.
Most people have said that it is bad forgrades, this isn’t bad for the team, but its bad for youself (points out off topic)
The only bad effect is that the peoplewhoa re over dedicated, get really grumpy andsay they made the whole robot, and thus theyhave to control it etc.
Everyone needs to be dedicated, but overdedication is bad for the team spirit and can cause the teams to have major arguments and maybe even split, and thus make the competition less fun.
Well it really depends on the person’s definition of over dedication. What may to too much commitment to one person may be nothing to another. I really depends on the person. But dedication is something that everyone should strive for. Not every one necessairly have to have the same definition of dedication, it really just satisfying your own thinking. Personally I’ve been plenty commited, but not enough for my own liking.
It’s bad to be over-dedicated if you’re married.
gulp!
im completely decidated to my team, im so dedicated that my dedication spilled over to another team and i help them. And im Completekly dedicated to my legoleague team as well.
There is a difference between being dedicated and being over dedicated. Just because you sacrifice other things for the team does not necessarily mean you are overdedicated. Anytime you want to be involved in something sacrifices must be made. In my opinion FIRST is such a valuable experiece that it is worth the sacrifices. I know my grades dropped 3rd Quarter (during build season) and at the beginning of 4th Quarter. I knew that the amount of time and energy that I was putting in during build season would make them drop, I just accepted it and continued. I dont ever think that I will regret the time spent and sacrifices made, but I’ve been accepted to college since November so I didnt have that bearing down on me. If you are a freshman, sophmore, or junior you need to sit down and think about what effects dropping grades could have on your future. Every person also has their limit and different people have better or worse time management skills. Do like you will have to in college, and in the real world. Prioritize everything that needs to be done, and dont always put robotics first or you will suffer in the end.
-Aaron
honestly… i’m an obsessive compulsive person… so being over-dedicated for weeks at a time is common for me… but it does do good for the team. like i learned how to animate and started drawing all these logos for the firebirds. robotics is really neat so just b/c i talk about it doesn’t mean i don’t have life or do i hehe!!! ppl just don’t understand robotics, they think it’s some sort of geek fest. at least i’m not the only one with this problem… 
for the past two years… there was not a single meeting that i have missed… or not a single competition… i was always there… on my team i am known as the tranny guy or the mechanical man and yes i am OVER dedicated… from my experience i think overdedication puts you down sometime… by peers… and lots of other things… now the question is… do i really care… or did i stop being dedicated to my team… answer is no… and wont give up… FIRST has made me confident in myself that i can stick with them for my whole life…
As part of a shrinking team, I have to say overdedication isn’t the problem, but over reliance on that person or people is. Use them, but also develope skills outside of them too.
I dont like to say this but FIRST is just an extra in schools and has to come second to some things, like school grades or a job, making over-dedication a problem some times. But I’m not going to say it is a bad thing because this year I got into about a seven hours a night schedule after the kick off.
Is it bad… no…
Is it the first thing in life… no…
Over dedication isn’t a problem, underdetication is. Over-Confidence is an even bigger problem. It is the people that say they are really enthusiastic in the beginning, saying they will be at almost every meeting, do so much, and then never show up again, or worse, show up at the very end to take credit for everything they did that is a problem.
it depends on your definition of “over-dedication”. my definition of over dedication is when you start to be too bossy or being elitist to the other members of the team. if you show up to all the meetings and help out as much as you can then you are just being dedicated to the team, that is what i kind of expect myself of anything i willingly join. and besides, its fun:p
-vivek
To a degree it can hurt you, especially if you don’t know how to prioritize your time. I was so eager for FIRST and robotics that BEFORE the season started, I spent time trying to find clues to the hints and more so to learn everything I could that I didn’t understand last year, I ended up not being able to participate due to grades for a period in the build season. Why? I didn’t do my work because I didn’t think it was as important as robotics. After that, I got my act together and realized that what my mentors have been trying to engrave in our heads was actually true:
Family > School > Robotics.
You can be over-dedicated and that isn’t a bad thing as long as you can sort out your priorities and do what is more important first.
Peace.
I second that,
and also, when some people get really into it, they start to hog jobs, or end up not taking time to help or teach others on the team.
don’t forget to share the passion! 
I don’t believe that it is bad to be over dedicated. I would consider myself to be extremely over dedicated but I would not exchange the experience I gained from working with Chief Delphi for anything. I am sure many of you feel this way about your teams also because they changed your life in some way to. I would rather be over dedicated any day than to be under dedicated.
It’s kind of a diversion of the main topic, but still, it’s related.
Why do you guys over-dedicate or just dedicate alot for your team? What do you wish to accomplish by doing that?
In my opinon, I’m overdedicating for my team because I see we can find in ourselves alot of potential like other teams have found. I see some of the other team members rather rest for a bit than work a little harder and I try to help my team reach farther, somtimes alone, somtimes with a few dedicated people.
I just feel that by dedicating all I have now, I’ll enjoy my time in the FRC much more and feel that I have learned more and reached higher peaks in alot of stuff, not only terms of education, but in life too. And these feeling will go with me after FRC and into the rest of my life.
I might not realize that I’m overdoing myself, but I just keep going.
Is that OK/normal?
And What about you guys?