Steering Committee 2011-05-06

Mentors Meeting 6-May-2011

B. Kellom, R. Wall, J. Kulik, R. Kulik, J. Christopher, J. Morganto, M. Rizzo, G. Deaver, J. Weissman, S. Weissman, S. Maley, C. McKown

Off-season competition plans:

• This provides our best opportunity to train a new drive team
• Also to get autonomous working

PARC – Tunkhannock – 4-June – SAT’s day & no Christopher

(BR) – Bridgewater – 11-June

IRI – Indianapolis – 22 & 23 July

Duel on the Delaware – 22-October

Ramp Riot – November

• Sign up if we have student commitment

Suggestions/Observations:

• We should investigate the 5th Gear drive simulation (Christopher & Maley) – but there is no pivot simulation
• We had students who had no interest in building robots.
• General lack of motivation and investment – reluctance to step-up – reluctance to question mentors
• None of the students were leaders. Includes Captains.
• We still lack a second potential co-captain for next year.
• Suggested we use and enforce the Scrum methodology. (Deaver)
• Generate the plan the night before.
• The lack of predictability in attendance interfered with team cohesion. Very visible in the minibot effort. No-one knew who (both mentor & student) would attend on any given evening/day. Students who worked with one mentor one day would show up and find that this mentor was not in (and vice versa).
• Unpredictable arrival and departure times of students and mentors confounded attempts to hold integration meetings (can’t successfully run Scrum under these conditions) (C. McKown)
• Suggested to move to a culture more like Miss Daisy’s, where students sign up and commit to being present at specific times on specific days. (C. McKown)
• In the original team, Students were hand-picked by Paul Sabatino. We no longer have this filter and really have no access to teachers for recruiting students.

Behaviour

• We need some rules (with consequences)
• Behavior in the shop is a problem. A specific student cited. If effectively directed, this student is very productive. Otherwise, this same student is disruptive and prevents others from working effectively (Kellom).
• A written and signed code-of-conduct was suggested (Weissman)
• There needs to be an expectation that students will learn & work; less social club; less video gaming; less hiding in the kitchen.
• Need job descriptions and guidelines for student leaders (C. McKown & Maley)
• Some aspects of team cohesion and leadership started to appear after Philadelphia.
• Nice team shirts and drive team hats suggested for improving cohesion.

Summer projects:

• Programming & Test Board
• Design Classes
• 3DS Max
• Video team

Space

• CCIU – Clem (7-June)
• Lockheed – Morganto
• Boeing – Kulik (post-501c3)
• Champ sponsor list – Kulik

How can we increase exposure of students to other aspects of the robot?

Can we have a checklist for other areas?

How do we get more kids?

• Student-driven recruiting
• Demos to Boy/Girl Scouts
• Demos at schools
• A more professional shirt
• Demos at Summer events
• Demos
• Back-to-school nights

Web-site

• Lot of the kids find the website confusing.
• With VEX having its own website (and not kept current on the old site) convert site to FRC-only (Team 1640) with links to other DAR sites
• Need to link the Facebook team and YouTube page.
• Maybe the Facebook page can take on some of the social role (allowing more work during meetings)

Sponsors & Fundraising

• 501c3!
• Finance Report
• No matter where we present, we need to point out that we offer CAD & 3ds-Max and Photoshop & media.
• We need a booklet sort of thing for potential sponsors. See the 1511 Sponsor book for reference.
• Rizzo needs video-editing software.
• Lightbulbs!

---