Long Distance Mentoring

Well my nomadic mentoring adventures continue now I’m living in Montana for school (go bobcats) originally I’m from near Sacramento, California. I’ve scene it discussed a few time on CD, but I want to through it out there now that build season is close. I’m going to try video mentoring via google + if any teams want to give it a try. I’m going to focus primarily on methodology for making decisions, how to communicate with team members more effectively, and directing and helping to find information (things i’m good at and rookies generally aren’t). I’m going to try have a google + hangout going anytime (from now on) I’m near a computer and after the season end’s I’ll do a recap/guide for other mentors on what works for video/distance mentoring. So if you have questions, want to talk shop, or join the hangout please feel free to stop in or shoot me an email.

-Joseph Tadsen
Tadsen.J@gmail.com

Have you considered signing up in FIRST’s Virtual Technical Adviser system? https://my.usfirst.org/FIRSTPortal/Login/Virtual_login.aspx

Great resources for virtual mentors:

Remote presentation software: www.anymeeting.com
you can share your desktop, schedule conference calls, record sessions, etc. Best part, it’s free

Remote computer support: www.teamviewer.com
Remote control another computer, unattended access to computer (if desired), best part, it’s free

Remote communication: www.skype.com
Call any other skype user for free, call 800 numbers for free, call any phone number for cheap, can share your screen, can do two person video calls for free

Document collaboration: docs.google.com
Share documents, spreadsheets, simple forms. Multiple users can update simultaneously. Best part, it’s free

Joe,
If you have a chance, there is a great steak place in Belgrade called the Mint Bar and Cafe. They buy from local ranchers and have daily specials. The people are very nice and the food was excellent. I took a chance the night we were there and asked if they did blackened prime rib. The dish is the chef’s specialty I was told and it was great. Locals all go there.

Hey we would love to have another mentor.

Check us out

www.atomicrobotics.com

Joe -Thanks for the heads up on the virtual technical mentor I’ll definitely suggesting to a few others. Right now my strengths as a mentor aren’t in technical advising unfortunately but i’ll look more into it and give an update later.

Rsisk - If you haven’t checked out Google plus hangout feature I would recommend you try it. You can talk with up to nine people and they can come and go with out affecting the conversation its pretty nice when you want to work virtually on a project (especially in google docs) with other people. Thanks for the recomendation of www.anymeeting.com it looks like it will be very helpful to me.

Al Skierkiewicz- Next time I’m in Belgrade I’ll definitely check the Mint Bar and Cafe out. I look forward to a good steak :slight_smile:

staplemonx - I like the website its pretty informative, and shoot me an email with contact info for the team and I’ll be happy to assist in whatever ways I can.

Thanks for you replies and hope the next week is restful :stuck_out_tongue:

-Joseph Tadsen
Tadsen.J@gmail.com

Hello Joseph,

Congratulations in starting a virtual learning community !.

We meet weekly until end of season at 9:00PM Central Time. Currently we have mentors and coaches from 4-6 California teams that participate. Agenda for next 6 weeks :
w1) Brainstorming
w2) trade study
w3) prototyping
w4) testing
w5) tbd
w6) tbd

If you are interested in checking us out, feel free to send me a PM and I will send you telecom number…

Cheers,
Marcos :slight_smile: