TEAM 406 NEEDS HELP!!!!!

Competition Team Organization
1

Im a member of team 406 and even though we are not a rookie team…we have a lot of problems…

1st there are only 7 dedicated members on the team and out of that 7 half of us are new

**2nd **our coach first year was last year so ( NO OFFENSE) he knows just as much about first as we do

3rd due to the recent reccesion we have lost most of our mentors and we have no work space as of now ( BUT IS STILL THANKFUL FOR THE MENTORS WHO ARE STILL WITH US!!!)

the team is sort of like a rookie team all over again…so im asking is there anyone that has any suggestion on how we could still make this year a good year with all these PROBLEMS?

2

My guess would be ask experienced teams near you to form an alliance so that you can share ideas with each other

3

Your team can still do well, still learn a TON, and still have alot of fun at the competitions. Do the simple things – such as transport empty cells and herd moonrocks for your alliance – and do them well. Use the KOP to its fullest, follow instructions anywhere you can find them, and meet 3 times a week for a few hours each time.

A lightweight robot with a simple strategy will still have a TON of fun in this game since there’s a viable strategy for it and it will be one of the more responsive/faster robots out there.

4

First things first, take a deep breath. =)
Now, let’s evaluate:
You have 7 kids - I don’t care if they’re new or old, if they’re dedicated and excited, you can do anything. Seven kids who work hard is better than 50 kids who don’t do anything.

You have a coach that’s done this before. Yes, it’s only his second year, but that’s one more year than a rookie team coach has had.

Workspace and loss of mentorship is hard, but it’s still doable. My team works out of our classroom, and various garages when necessary.

Start by reaching out to your local teams, and asking if they can provide you some mentorship and help.
Use the resources that are available to you - there are LOTS of helpful WhitePapers on ChiefDelphi, and lots of other resources that are available with just a little bit of searching.

You may no be able to accomplish as MUCH this build season as you want to, but you DEFINITELY can build and finish a successful robot. Start with the basics, design and strategize just like everyone is doing right now. Then start building, contact local organizations and see if they’ll donate you things like machining so you don’t have to worry about costs.

Worry about what you can accomplish, meeting deadlines, and just keep going. The first year my team existed we were only 12 kids, 1 teacher, and 3 parents. Of those 12 kids - 5 worked hard. We still made it to the semi-finals at our regional competition.

You can do it, just keep your chins up!

Also, I know Detroit is a big city, but JUST in Detroit alone there’s over a dozen teams. Ask for help:
FRC: 440 Cody HS High School & Detroit Public Schools
FRC: 2673 Cass Technical High School
FRC: 3096 Detroit Finney High School & Detroit Public Schools
FRC: 1941 Frederick Douglass College Preparatory Academy
FRC: 3097 Detroit Public Schools & Kettering High School
FRC: 3119 Crockett Technical High School & Detroit Public Schools
FRC: 2431 Detroit Northwestern HS and STEM
FRC: 903 Charles Chadsey High School & Detroit Public Schools
FRC: 1602 Consortium College Preparatory High School
FRC: 2050 Southeastern High School of Technology
FRC: 515 Osborn University High School
FRC: 519 Pershing High School
FRC: 2591 Davis Aerospace Technical High School
FRC: 2048 Detroit Academy for Young Women High School
FRC: 1701 University of Detroit Mercy & University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy
FRC: 3002 Detroit Central Trailblazers
FRC: 3069 Denby Tech High School & Detroit Public Schools
FRC: 3115 WEST SIDE ACADEMY High School
FRC: 2224 Renaissance High School & A. Philip Randolph Career & Technical Center

5

keep your head up and do your best! just ask for help from other teams in your area, my team is always willing to help in any way other teams in our area…whether it be financial, mentoring, parts, or help building something. It can be quite challenging when you only have a few members, but there is positive to it also. Everyone has to participate in more areas of the team, then there will be an even bigger learning experience for the members.

6

You may have just fallen into your situation in the best game possible for you.

This game is designed for teams like yours. Use kit parts and just make it work. Keeping your chin up is easy to say, but hard to do. You’ve come to the right place and stay on it. Just remember one thing in your situation a friend told me just last night:

“Work smarter, not harder”

I know it may seem like the opposite of what you’ve been taught but it is a way to succeed if done correctly.

Lol 1337 post :slight_smile:

7

Yea I have to agree with Stogi here. Its pretty intuitive to think that a lot of members, members and coaches make a team that will have a robot ready in 6 weeks. That may not always be the case. Working with 7 people who are focused and willing to do some research on CD using whitepapers and the other numerous FIRST technical resources. Delegate well, not all 7 of you have to be working on the same thing as well. Also, you said that there were people in the club that were not part of the 7. Keeping them involved in important, whether they are making runs to home depot, or just attempting to learn through tasks such as building the trailer or making the bumpers.
As far as mentors go, maybe a team parent is handy enough to help you out? A few parents went under the radar for a few weeks until they were lest intimidated by “building a robot” and helped us by teaching us how to use powertools and helping us secure out robot in our crate.
Anyways, I hope this helps

I know you may feel frustrated at the moment, but take a minute to acknowledge the fact that you care enough about your team to wish to change its situation. Maybe this year you won’t have the killer robot that will just school everyone at your regional, but you know what, its all right. I know what your feeling, I’ve expended a lot of energy in frustration myself. Just hang in there, you’ll feel enormously satisfied when your vision for the team starts taking form.

Take care, if you wanna talk, vent, or ask for advice (Im limited on technical advice) PM me sometime

Good Luck

8

As you may be frustrated with this year because your team is small, you will be just fine. You have 7 kids that are really excited to build a robot and thats all you need. My suggestions, after looking at this years game a little harder, would be to build a robot that is simple but effective. Yours might not do everything but in my experience alliance members are looking for robots that do one thing super well. Try to build a robot that is a simple herder. The other thing you can do, since this years game has a good amount of human interaction, is you can train really good drivers and a good thrower.
My last suggestion is to call on an older team in your area for a team friendship, they could fill in the spots for your missing mentors!

Best of Luck!!

9

Our Team has competed with only 5 kids in the past. It is very doable. We now have 12 kids. Sure larger teams may have an advantage in some areas however your team will know each other like the back of your hand. It is difficult to do that with 50 or 60 kids.

The kit has just about everything you need to build a nice robot. Sure you may not be able to put $2500.00 into it but most teams don’t anyways. Esp. in this economy. Our kids have collected pop cans ( we have a deposit on them ) and raised over $300.00 in a few days. That was with 5 kids!

Cheer up you have something available to you that most kids in the world ever will. Think positive. Find a team near you, they will help I would bet on it!

I wish you the best of luck!

10

Our team started with 7 students, the school principal, and myself. We worked out of a basement with my toolbox. Not a lot of funding and the superstructure was painted 2x4’s. Yet we completed the build season, participated well, and learned much.

It is the experience of the six week challenge that is important, not the amount of students/money/resources available, nor is it about scoring/ranking at competition.

Link up with other teams if possible, but at the very least use the experience as character building.

This is a preparation for life, not a guarantee of high placement in the competition.

Good luck and keep your head up!

11

You said it buddy! I know what it’s like to be a team that needs help, we have been there before. If there is anything we can do remotely please let me know.

Cass

12

You probably have a FIRST Senior Mentor in your area; contact him or her: http://www.usfirst.org/community/volunteers/content.aspx?id=3310&terms=senior+mentor

If there is no Senior Mentor contact your Regional Director: http://www.usfirst.org/regionalcontact.aspx

Both of these programs can steer you to help.

A lot of teams have put made resources available to you - many of these are listed in the Mentor Resources Library at http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/content.aspx?id=14034 and the Helpful Link section on this forum.

And, (shameless plug), check out MOEmentum, a week by week newsletter especially for rookie teams.

Many many other teams are willing to help. Ask them!

http://moe365.org/moementum/moementum.php

13

Thread resurrection much?

14

A moderator should pull this resurrected thread from 2009.

Team 406 no longer exists.

15

First thing is I’d like to suggest looking at the situation this way. On a lot of FRC teams there are a ton of people, and what can end up happening is some people don’t really learn anything because there are people more skilled who can do the job instead of them, so with your situation everyone is forced to become a skilled and competent worker because when your down to that few people you need everyone to be working at full speed.

From heading my schools FTC team (3750) this year here are a few things I would suggest

  • Make sure everyone is always working and doing something
  • Overworking can be bad, but underworking can cause team members to become uninterested with whats going on (You only have 7 so losing 1 person is 15% of your team)
  • If problems start to arise between members solve them early as possible you need to be a close family (especially with a small team), not us 3 v. those 3, and the last guy off in the corner

That’s all I got right now, but I’ll probably have more later

16

being a second year team with myself and one other junior the only 2 who participated last year we have similar problems. We are lucky to have plenty of tools and a lab but aside from that its mainly on our 1 experienced mentor and myself to get ideas on paper and to get people working. What you need to do is find a place for tooling and gather everyone for a final design concentrating on driving to start. Get something running and have separate people on the programming. If you do this you will get a working robot, it may not be the best, but at least you’ve done as much as you could and your rookies have learned something. good luck :smiley:

17

TO REITERATE SO NO MORE PEOPLE POST.

18

Unfortunately so. Despite their troubles last year, they were able to compete at Cass Tech and Detroit regionals, with a record of 7-15-2.

I don’t know about the reasons for their demise. However, with the Detroit collaboration on a build site, I would imagine any remaining team members could join with another team.

Closing thread …