Year Overview and Postmortem
Hi Everybody,
So the end of the build season and competition has arrived. Even though the final result was not what we expected, we were still a great team and we have improved a lot compared to last year. We have made significant improvements in terms of communication, membership, dedication, engineering, organization, spirit and much much more. This year was a great year and we should all be proud of our hard work.
However, like in all things, we can still improve a great deal. This is why every year, we have an event called the Postmortem. This means that we will all sit down and have an organized discussion (and we will try to keep the digression to a minimum) where we will go over the whole year. What went well? What did not? What should we improve on? What can we do to be more interactive with other teams? Be more recognized in FIRST? You get the general idea. This is also a time when we go over the organization of the club. Next year’s leaders will NOT be announced at that time, but we will discuss possible position openings and how the organization is possibly going to work next year.
We will also discuss future plan of action. We will go over what we will do in the next three-four months before we leave for summer vacation, and most of all, what you the members would like to do more of in Robotics. What would you like to learn? Do? Do you have any specific projects you would like to work at? etc…
We will also try to take another team picture because not everybody was at the competition and also because we could not get a hold of some people at the competition itself. So put on your team t-shirts if you have them. If you don’t we can hand the out on Wednesday or maybe a bit earlier too.
Thanks for participating this year, and we will see you on Wednesday! Please try to come for this is one of the most important meetings we will have before next year.
Ugh I will not be able to attend this upcoming meeting for I have a math competition from 12:45-3:45.
Is this the last meeting?
For everyone, this postmortem meeting will definitely not be the last meeting. Plan to come to robotics meetings every Wednesday, the with exception of AP and IB testing weeks, which will be coming up soon.
Yeah, about that[Larry]…. just cuz the competition is over doesn’t mean robotics is over! *cheers*
There is still plenty of stuff we can do such as look for possible sponsors, recruit new people (and make posters), and discuss our upcoming hexbug sales.
We can even start collecting/making the spirit gear for next year’s competition (cuz this year we kinda made it all in one day).
Another thing we can work on is this website.
It’s already really good, professional thanks to our web people
But there are still a few improvements (such as fixing the picture slideshow function and making it more “creative”)
Finally, we have to decide on a date and start organizing things for the robotics potluck/year-in-review night.
I’ve already almost finished a list of potential sponsors. I also finished a the thank you letter to our sponsors, case and magellan.
I also agree with what angela said! we should start fund raising really soon so that we can have even more money for next year.
Just a thing I would like to bring up, and see if anyone could research. Are there any more workshops over the summer?\\
I know that people might not want to spend time on robotics over the summer, but that’s the time when we have the most time, and it would be good to get ready for the school year (when we have less time on our hands to fundraise)
haha… if we can get enuf money, we might b able to attend the oregon regional next year too =D
that would probably be really helpful to test our robot and stuff
Yeah…One of my main goals right now is to get a hold of the PTSA and/or the ASB and asking them for funds so we can participate in possibly two competitions next year. It would be very helpful to improve our robot and get more experience.
We could also spend money on rebuilding this robot and getting more experience working with different kinds of materials etc…
Eric, sorry to bother, but which Eric are you? Sun? Lei (idk how you spell it x_x)?
Of course it’s Eric Sun.
The ASB fund request forms are due April 14th! Submit it soon.
It’s always Robotics-Time, even during Summertime! I suggest PR work on fund-raising, starting an FLL Mentoring Program, getting posters/promotional materials ready, and the like. Build should put the omnibot back together for promo purposes and maybe work on the ever-elusive RaveBot to practice pneumatics and to pimp it out with speakers, cathodes, and a sweet paint job. Of course, to be fully pimped out it needs pneumatics that are like hydraulics in cars.
If the new build team is organized and motivated enough and has a place to work, I don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t work on an awesome robot for practice. If you think the RaveBot is too pointless, I suggest you work on a highly maneuverable robot with four-wheel-drive, 4-wheel-steering (yes, steering), and possibly gear-shifting. The drive/steering combo will mean you’ll need to design/buy a differential if you’re going with a shaft drive or to design the wheels for independent control/power and emulate a differential with software.
Consider a custom control system, knobs and switches with retro lights and a brushed steel look are awesome.
If you don’t have any ideas you’re thinking too small…
Someone asked for a team photo? I just released it onto Facebook.
- Allan Kuan