Member Registration Fees

[Camren]

Okay so I need some opinions. Does your team require any registration fees? do you believe that teams should require fees? Give me some feedback

[GaryVoshol]

It will depend entirely on the dynamics of the team and the students that are being attracted to the team.

Some teams require some financial contribution - plus fundraising - to demonstrate commitment to the team. That can be a good thing.

But some areas simply are not financially stable enough. Students do not have their own or family resources to be able to pay. And there's not enough local businesses that could be approached by the students for fundraising.

[LeelandS]

Originally Posted by Camren

Okay so I need some opinions. Does your team require any registration fees? do you believe that teams should require fees? Give me some feedback

On 1126, all students are required to submit a $100 registration fee to help cover the cost of event registration and travel. This fee increases on years when they attend the world championships.

I personally don't think students should pay to be a part of the team. If a student wants to donate to the team, so be it. But I don't think any student should be denied the right of being on a FIRST team because some amount of money is too much for them.

If a team is in need of funding, I feel that the team should look elsewhere. Fundraising is something I believe every team should do. It's a part of a "team culture" that I think is an important aspect to sustainability. Teams can also look to businesses for sponsorship or donations. Again, I feel every team should do that. That is not just an aspect of team sustainability, but part of the FIRST culture.

[CalTran]

Originally Posted by LeelandS

I personally don't think students should pay to be a part of the team. If a student wants to donate to the team, so be it. But I don't think any student should be denied the right of being on a FIRST team because $100 is too much for them.

If a team is in need of funding, I feel that the team should look elsewhere. Fundraising is something I believe every team should do. It's a part of a "team culture" that I think is an important aspect to sustainability. Teams can also look to businesses for sponsorship or donations. Again, I feel every team should do that. That is not just an aspect of team sustainability, but part of the FIRST culture.

I think no student should be denied access to any club period. If they have the will to join a club then they should be allowed to join.

I completely agree with the quoted statement. Our team, though living in a generally upper-middle class area, do not require a monetary registration fee. We do, however, require people to pay for their own hotel and food costs. Our district covers the gas fees.

[z_beeblebrox]

Our team required (very strongly recommended) a registration fee to pay for shirts, travel, etc. However, if someone was unable to pay the fee, they would still be able to join the team. I think no one should be denied access to a robotics team, but that, if possible, an entry fee should be charged, both to ensure commitment and to cover expenses.

[sanddrag]

As an entity of a California public school, we cannot charge any fee and must provide anything necessary to participate. The students get the first T-shirt free and a free bus ride to the Long Beach regional. We keep a calendar where families take turns providing food for the entire team. We do require that students have black pants to wear at the regional and formal events, and we do not provide those.

The Second T-shirt is $20 and if we travel to a second regional, the travel costs would not be covered by the team. Each student/family would need to pay.

While it would really make funding nice and easy to charge everyone a fee, I don't see it as being realistic (even aside from the law) in our area. There are students whose families can honestly not afford anything other than the bare minimum their child needs.

(I also agree with the post below)

[bardd]

We do not charge either. Our philosophy is based on the students. The team is for students and by the students, and as such it doesn't seem right to take money from students.

As I see it, there are three reasons to charge members:

1. For the team's budget, to help the team run and make sure nothing is missing because they can't afford it. I believe this reason isn't good enough, unless a team is in dire need, because all teams (as far as I'm aware) have sponsors of some form, and if their sponsors don't give them all the money and/or equipment they need, they can probably find more funders or hold a fundraiser of some sort. In short, money is almost always within reach if you try hard enough.

2. To reduce the number of dropouts ("I already spent the money, I might as well stay so it won't be wasted"). I find this reasoning flawed. First of all, I believe FRC and FIRST is first about education and then about the competition (as FIRST themselves state). If someone joins the team, comes to one lecture and three work sessions, and decides he had enough, it's fine by me. I would of course preferred it had he stayed and took part, but as it is, he has one lecture and three work sessions under his belt that he wouldn't have gained otherwise. Secondly, when someone stays in the team because he paid money, he doesn't have the motivation to take part and participate, and that's not the kind of people I would want to work with undertaking the hugh mission of an FRC season.

3. For students to show ambition and will to participate. I firmly believe you don't want to limit the people who join the team to people with great desire to participate, for two reasons: one, most people joining the team would probably be people who already know FIRST (through FLL, through family etc.). That doesn't really help spreading FIRST and it's values - you reach less people who don't know it. The second reason is my personal experience - when I joined the team I was probably one of the least ambitious people joining. Now I'm the mechanical leader and one of the most dedicated people on the team. If our team had registration fee, I wouldn't know a thing about FIRST, let alone my family, friends, not so few people on the street etc. There are other great examples of people like me. Registration fees deter people like me - who start with no ambition but have potential (if I can say so myself).

[MARS_James]

We don't have registration fees per say, anyone can join the team however in order to attend the regional(s) with the team you must have a been a part of donation presentations equal to $200 and attend 50% of build meetings

[dk5sm5luigi]

We have tried to take a different approach to this. We don't have a registration fee but we have a required amount of fundraising. Usually this equates to about 5 tickets to our pasta supper. We try to make it easy so that it isnt a huge burden but also large enough to show commitment. The students can meet this goal by participating in any of the half dozen fundraisers we have. Every year we have at least one student who will just write a check to the team.

For me the requirement is to make sure everyone participates in everything and not just show up to build the robot. Plus any additional money they raise comes off the cost for their trip.

[Tetraman]

No fee to be on the team. But we do ask for students to pay full price on their team shirt and travel fees for regional events (with some exceptions for students that can't afford one or the other.)

I don't see a problem with paying a fee to be on the team so long as it pays for things I would be paying for anyway - like the t-shirts, trip fees, food, and so on, sure.

[smurfgirl]

One benefit of having members pay a small fee up front is that you can use it as a means to consolidate expenses and organize team finances. For example, if you each team member will buy a t-shirt and a sweatshirt during the course of the season, you can charge them for that at the beginning of the season. Then you don't have to deal with the hassle of collecting money multiple times throughout the season, and you have the money for the order in advance.

On the other hand, this doesn't work out as well if team members tend to join or leave at different points in the season, and/or the expenses aren't known in advance. What happens if your price point for whatever the fee goes toward comes in above what members paid? Do you collect more money? If the cost is below what members paid, do you issue refunds or does the extra money stay with the team?

[Ekcrbe]

We have requirements of either $200 registration and $200 fundraising/sponsorship or $500 fundraising/sponsorship, plus 20 hours of community service--at least 15 at team events. The team doesn't collect the registration fee until November, so students can get an idea of the program without the commitment. Upon graduation, each student gets $250 to put towards college expenses, so the out-of-pocket money comes back. Each student is also responsible for one or two (depending on membership/our team leader's inclination to pizza) team dinners during build and competition season. Costs for competitions are split between the team and members, depending on the circumstances.

[DonRotolo]

No registration fee. Students generally have to pay a part of the costs if they want to travel overnight with the team (day trips, for a District event, involve only a bus, which the team and/or district pays).

Our travel to CMP in 2011 was last-minute and by air; students had to pay $450 or so. That was the most I can recall. By bus to Philadelphia for the MAR CMP was around $150 including hotel. Meals are generally not included.

Students with a financial hardship can confidentially request assistance; we've never denied anyone if they are a contributor to the team during build.

[pfreivald]

No fees, but we have travel criteria that hinges upon student participation -- and that includes fundraising.

[Jibsy]

Originally Posted by Tetraman

No fee to be on the team. But we do ask for students to pay full price on their team shirt and travel fees for regional events (with some exceptions for students that can't afford one or the other.)

This is the way we currently do it. For the coming year there will likely be a mandatory fundraising "quota". There will be fundraisers organized and planned out as a team, making it pretty easy to meet the quota so long as a little bit of effort is put forth.

As others have said, it depends on the financial situation of the team/students(average)/area.