Changing Course

Preliminary Title Page by Michael Leonffu

Alone...

When I started this project over a year ago with my friend and group of colleagues that all believed in the same idea: Lets make robotics better. Slowly it has faded. Everyone left, including my partner and friend. Now I'm alone doing this project, one vs all, one member on the board vs all other members, the minority, the last one standing. I'm used to it but thats not the point; the point is how is robotics going to get better now since I'm all alone and this task is more than what one person, let alone me who has lots of other work to do, complete this whole project.

Testing Robot made for Software; Teach Rookies to Program.
Photo by Michael Leonffu

So I'm changing course...

It all occurred to me, though mentors and close friends, maybe it's not impossible to do this alone. Instead of trying to get the assistance and approval of the other members of a board that is broken and non-exsistant I should just make the documents on my own and have them look at them and agree or disagree. It's my last choice. I've already set up many meetings for them, the other board members and mentors, and all that has happened is nothing(Other than the harsh emails in reply). 

So my mentor tells me(since my mentor and I both lack the experience): why not just email out a document and have people talk about it. It'll end in either two ways: one, all people either agree or abstain; two, a person disagrees and emails get exchanged and then I can call a meeting in person. Either way I get my plan across. 

Botcats Software Division. Photo by Michael Leonffu

My partner says otherwise...

And I agree with him, so I'm doing both his idea and my mentors. The thing is no matter how much planning I do it's no good without the actual application of the plan. So my friend tells me I should just do my plans on my own team, in hope that, eventually the other teams will follow and realize that the planning I've made is a correct concept.

Personally I think he's right, I get to test run my plans while also making my team and all of robotics better! I find it funny and in total agreement with my mentor: in engineering building a robot is super easy, building a team and solving people problems is the impossible task. The problem in engineering is not the robot it's the people making the robot. 

Rookies Planning and Building the Launcher Device.
 Photo by Michael Leonffu

The plan...

My plan mostly revolves around keeping robotics alive and teaching rookies while keeping a structure and a clear focused set of ideals we all follow together to inspire STEM and robotics in the community. It's all written in the manifesto but I've been applying it to my team so far. I'm making sure the veterans give rookies their time to learn and catch up and be able to do robotics, from planning/designing to programming/building and everything in between.

Danylo D and Thomas L Working on 3D Printed Parts.
Photo by Michael Leonffu

Finally...

Although in all the struggle and all the time I'm spending on this project -- like the last 6 hours I've been making and cleaning documents despite all my schoolwork -- I believe I'm doing this for a good cause, and I also believe it is good practice and experience. I don't see any way I'm walking out of this and saying "wow that was a waste of time". Even if my plans don't work or they get ignored at least I was able to make them and learn from them and in the end if they were truly useful if another person, like me, shows up one day he or she can pick up theses documents and make robotics better.

Preliminary Action

Robotics Club Flyers Made and Photographed by Michael Leonffu

Recruitment

James M is in charge of recruitment; but that doesn't mean I can't help him out. So I made some paper posters to put in classrooms and around campus, not quite sure if they worked. Either ways there is club rush this Wednesday and I'm hoping to distribute these around during that time. I just got on terminal, an application on mac, and made these flyers to show to James and he picked the one he liked the most.

And it's not like I'm just doing whatever and remembering and moving on. I didn't just make a flyer and give it to James and hang them up. I'm learning form this. I record all my actions and put in into a project file; the purpose of this is so that we can avoid mistakes and review and learn what happened years after. 

Story

Friday meeting, Teaching Rookies how to Build a Robot
photo by Michael Leonffu

I've encountered several problems, nothing went according to plan. The idea was: talk to James; make a flyer and give it to James for approval; post flyer. What really happened: talk to James and learn he doesn't know what or how to do flyer; ask people that do know what to put on flyer; try to meet up with James to design flyer; learn some news about robotics and ask again about what to put on flyer; actually make flyer concept (picture above); present it to James and get his approval; make more copies; distribute flyers; learn that those flyers are wrong; remake flyers; reprint; and repost again.

The point is if there was communication or documentation I could have just red a document with all the resources I needed rather than go and find people; this recruitment should have taken only 3-4 days but it took 1-2 weeks. Imagine all the people that could have seen the poster sooner and have joined robotics. Problems like these is what I intend to solve and fix with the board.

Communication

Danylo D waiting outside until 3:00PM
photo by Michael Leonffu

Ironically it seems all our problems are just communication. For instance Thursday all robotics members get an email that the meeting on Friday has been moved to 3:00PM to 4:30PM then an email is sent from there saying that the meeting is 2:30PM to 4:00PM; and once we're in the meeting we pack at 4:00PM and are told it ends at 4:30PM. 

We took out our laptops and worked on robotics stuff while waited. 

Solution?

The board. Imagine if we all were working together and not separately. Or if we all used a standard method of organization for coherence and transparency. So Danylo, the other advocator for the board, and I set up a meeting for Monday. No one but Ryan N, that is also a supporter of the board, showed up; for any board meeting there needs to be enough people to make decisions officially so we just stayed there and talked about robotics. Though since no one else showed up we wasted our time.

The Meeting Agenda; Format from Mr.Fieberg
by Michael Leonffu

When I think back I notice three big problems: we didn't tell everyone about the meeting soon enough ; the meeting purpose was unclear; and the board idea has a bad rap to it even if it already exists. Some good things about the meeting: it was at a public library not at a house; we had a set time and day; an agenda was sent out; and some people showed up; ALSO THERE WAS A WHITE BOARD! I plan to make send out the meeting agenda and meeting announcement a lot sooner for next time like a day or two in advance. There is a lot to talk about and this meeting is very important I felt very sad that the other members of the board, meaning people who are extremely passionate and want to make robotics better, could not attend.

I still believe I can make the board happen.