Hello! I’m trying to help get team 2855 up and running after the we went belly up during covid. Since its been a couple of years since we last operated, all of our past members have graduated and many of our old mentors are gone, leaving us with a lack of knowledge on how to properly run a team.
I have plenty of great resources on team operations and design, but what I’ve had trouble finding is information on when we need to enter events, what to do in pre season, and overall the timeline of what we need to do and when. I found this resource which pretty much has everything I need,
but unfortunately, it was last revised in 2015 and many things seem to be out of date.
Are there any resources like this one that are up to date and can help us manage our team through the basics of FRC? Thanks for any help.
It looks like you’re in St. Paul & there are a number of other teams there. I recommend reaching out to a couple experienced coaches and/or lead mentors. A lot can be learned over a few coffee dates or phone calls, including some important stuff the official documentation might not emphasize. Good luck! I admire your effort to get your team back running.
Outstanding. Bringing a team back from (semi extinction) is difficult and a most worthy undertaking.
How is your “inventory”? Obviously people are the most important asset but down time has a tendency to let tools and supplies walk away, and batteries go more than semi extinct. Maybe you have a warehouse of widgets and metal stock, but if not I’d make inventory a next level priority. The bad news: everything costs more and the supply chain is messed up. The sorta good news: I expect the changes of the last few seasons (brushless, new electronics, etc) mean that there are lots of teams in the Metro area who, if asked, would turn up at your doorstep with Robot Christmas presents.
Thanks for the advice! From what we saw last year, we have the (very) bare bones of a bot from years past, a shop with some useful tools and a dusty corner in the back with multiple tool chests that seem to have some parts inside. We also are lucky to have a past mentor who has hinted at us still having some money left over from the last season we were active, and some friends who have recomended us the Minneapolis Urban Robotics Alliance where we can seek further help on parts.
I’ll be sure that we start going through our stock as soon as we can.