East Ridge Robotics Foundation

Team Mission Statement and Values:

We are the ERRORs, the East Ridge Robotics Ominous Raptors, team 3130. Rather than just being an FRC team or one of the biggest clubs in our high school, our organization is structured around training the new generation of STEM students and leaders. We have recently seen a decline in students in the STEM field, so we have made it our mission to make known in our community what students can achieve through STEM education. 

The creation of plans, initiatives, policies, and robots allows our team to do everything that we need to do. We actively work on the foundations upon which we build our team, building programs to increase STEM awareness in our community.

Our team is dedicated to going above and beyond the expectations set. This dedication allows us to excel in many different fields of whatever we want to accomplish and helps us hone our skills and demonstrate the experiences, knowledge, and expertise we have gained through our many years as a team. We are always learning how to build on old foundations for new ideas, ideate on them, and then find other ways to employ such ideation, which is what makes the East Ridge High School Robotics Team such a strong organization. 

In an organization as large as ours, it’s important to identify the ideals and traits we value. Although our organization works on many different things simultaneously, our five core values encompass every project we tackle. Our first value is passion. We spend many hours brainstorming, planning, and executing each of our projects. Our projects are impossible if our team members lack passion. Creating a good team environment and culture for our team makes us successful. Our second value is focus. As a team, we accomplish many different tasks by keeping a schedule everyone can view. Our Project manager visits each sub-team on the build team and the impact team every shop night to ensure they are up to date on their tasks and have everything they need to be successful.

Our third value is transparency. Open and honest communication is the only feasible way for an organization as large as ours to function with this many projects led by so many different people. As mentioned in the focus core value, our project managers job can only be done if open and honest communication is occurring. Our fourth value is respect. While honest communication is important, brutal honesty can also impede progress. Understanding that each student on our team has their own specific needs allows us to create a positive team culture. With this positive team culture, we are able to do much more for both our students and community. 

Our fifth value is courage. Transparency and respect are important, but both of these things are impossible if people lack the courage to speak up about their own issues and to provide advice to others who are also lacking in their respective areas. It’s hard to get younger students involved if they are not brave enough to try new things. We have found that after the pandemic, students have been less involved in extracurricular activities. So, at any event we attend, we encourage the younger generation of students to try something new and see how our team gives back.