I have been an FRC mentor and participant on and off all around the country since 2001 (Diabolical Dynamics – still remember the game!)
This year I’ve taken on the challenge of being lead engineering mentor for one LA rookie team (#4123) as well as mentor for another in Orange County (#4276).
As rookie teams, both schools have had a great deal of trouble gathering the resources that I know we’re going to need for the next 6 weeks, and frankly I took a bit for granted mentoring the past 10 years (school storage space, tooling, etc). For example, one of the teams is not even allowed to use their own school’s woodshop and is storing all the parts in a math classroom behind a few desks.
I spent the entire fall driving around speaking with local community colleges and other schools to ask for help with access to simple tooling, but it seems all local community colleges are not willing to support FRC – mostly liability concerns. Even CC’s I’ve worked at with other teams in the past no longer allow students to use their tooling.
I did meet with a local experienced team (687 – CAMS), who was graciously willing to build a custom part or two for us if needed, but what we really need is access to metal cutting tools, bandsaws, sanders, drill presses.
Luckily both schools did get grants from various locations to cover Kit and Regional event costs, but most of the other cash is in the form of a cash donation from the students themselves since the schools are unwilling provide any funding whatsoever.
Have any other rookie teams had these issues, and how did you resolve them? Is there any help teams local to the Bellflower and Huntington Beach areas willing to, at the very least, provide team mentors and a select number of students with access to basic tooling?
I’m lead mentor for a 2nd year team at El Rancho HS in Pico Rivera (about 15 min from Bosco off Rosemead… and oddly enough I live about 10 min from Marina HS!). Last year we ended up using mostly hand power tools (drills, saws) and a borrowed drill press. We also ended up using a fair amount of wood on our bot "/
This year, after doing some modest fundraising, we have our own drill press, mini-lathe, bench grinder, and mitre saw. These tools will suffice for our engineering needs, and I’d be happy to let you come by and use them provided your students have been properly taught safety guidelines… something I’m still working on for my kids. Message me if you want to check out our space some time.
BTW, getting some custom manufactured parts from the Nerd Herd is awesome.
I should have specified LA = Los Angeles, sorry about that. As far as Kickoff goes, the local kickoff here (USC) only allows 4 team members to attend for purposes of picking up the kit, so I have actually organized a Rookie team Kickoff at my company (Boeing, in Long Beach) where we will be hosting 4 high schools, watching the video, collaborating resources, and kicking off the brainstorming.
From a team strategy, management, and conceptual approach I think we’re ready to go – I’ve been running training sessions for both schools the past 2 months multiple times per week. The hardest part was doing all of this with no hardware to demonstrate with. Also, training all the other mentors who have no FIRST experience has made for quite a busy few months.
Anyway, SenorZ I would love to speak with you, but I think you disabled private messages. Any way we can get in touch external to these forums? (My private message system is enabled).