FIRST Mentor Life

Articles on how to run a FIRST robotics team and not lose your mind by mentors from the FIRST community.

Organization

Good organization means a more efficient team.  Tips to maximize your team’s organizational processes and structure.

Financial

Non-Profit finance is complicated, especially if not familiar with 501(c)3 reporting and record-keeping experience

Community Building

To meet the goals of your mission and you need partners in your community. Creating effective relationships requires a concerted effort.  

Communications

Internal and external communications can smooth the path for your efforts and help you to to communicate your message and meet your goals.  

Outreach

Community outreach is the cornerstone of building the FIRST community.  How can you maximize your intent and outcomes? 

Mental Health

FIRST is the hardest fun and student or mentor can have.  It can be exhausting, but also equally rewarding.  Let’s talk about self care!

About FIRST Mentor Life

The three of us found ourselves answers a lot of the same questions and answering them over and over.  Coming together, we thought there must be a better format than answering the same questions over and over in various forums.  Our answer was this repository of articles.

Over the years, Wendy, Joyce and Elise have each served as both mentors and team leads of Hall of Fame 1902 Exploding Bacon founded in 2006.

Building this community team and assisting others in their journey has provided us with a wide array of experience that we have found has also consistently benefitted other teams.

Upcoming Events

FIRST Championship 2022 WORKSHOP

How to run a Sustainable FIRST robotics team and not lose your mind.

Running a youth development organization these days includes a lot of moving parts: complex and challenging issues that can be stressful. Whether you are a veteran/rookie mentor or a team parent, you can always use some inspiration along the way.   This workshop will provide some non-technical practical tips and takeaways to improve your team’s efficiency and effectiveness.  All three presenters come with years of practical team leadership experience from all levels of FIRST. They will share relatable challenges and the solutions they implemented that made their experiences more enjoyable.

Mark your calendar to join us….
Friday, April 22, 2022 |
10:30am – 11:20pm | Room Location: 310 C

Recent Articles

FMC 2024 Future Proof Your Team

Thank you for joining us at the 2024 FIRST Mentor Conference workshop, Future-Proof Your Team: Strategies for Building Resilient and Adaptable FIRST Robotics Teams Below is a link to the slides from the workshop and resources links. If you have any questions.  You...

FMC 2024 Strategic Planning

Thank you for joining us at the 2024 FIRST Mentor Conference, Strategic Planning Workshop.    Below is a link to the slides from the workshop and resources links. If you have any questions.  You can email Elise at elise@liseydreams.com for questions and/or comments....

2023 FIRST Mentoring Conference

Thank you for joining us at the 2023 FIRST Mentoring Conference Survive and Thrive Workshops.    If you have any questions, please email Elise at elise@liseydreams.com or Wendy at wendy@firstinspires.org. We would love to hear your key take aways and/or if there are...