Team fee?

[Beamer159]

Hey, I'm from a rookie team and we just finished our competitions this year. We just got by financially this year because of a generous grant from the state. I was wondering if it would be a good or bad idea to include a sort of "team fee" next year in order to improve our financial status. How many teams have a team fee? Is it common or uncommon. I actually have no idea since this was my rookie year.

[A_Reed]

Team 48 has a team fee system, typically around $150. But we also give the students an opportunity to work off the fee by encouraging fund raising, i.e. every x dollars raised in profit = y dollars off of the individual's fee(typically not a 1:1 Ratio). allot of students end up not having to pay a dime because of their efforts in fund raising.

[Libby K]

Hey, I'm from a rookie team and we just finished our competitions this year. We just got by financially this year because of a generous grant from the state. I was wondering if it would be a good or bad idea to include a sort of "team fee" next year in order to improve our financial status. How many teams have a team fee? Is it common or uncommon. I actually have no idea since this was my rookie year.

1923 does not have a 'team fee' but we do a lot of local fundraising. Anything you can dream up- if it gets you money, it's worth it.

For your second year, there is also the NASA Program Growth grant- information about that usually comes in around the beginning of the school year. That covers your 6,000 for registration.

If you have any questions about fundraising (or really, anything about maintaining a rookie team) feel free to PM me. 1923 has been a sponsorless team (with the exception of the NASA grants) since the beginning. Let me know if there's any way I can help you out.

[bigbeezy]

I guess you could say that we have a team fee (kind of). Basicilly we have x dollars that go toward travel (out-of-state competition, champs in ATL) and then added to that $75 as "team fee." So before anyone can earn money toward their trips they first must earn the $75 for the "team fee". Most are able to fund raise the $75 and nearly all of their travel money so few have to pay for anything more than food.

[DarkFlame145]

Hey, I'm from a rookie team and we just finished our competitions this year. We just got by financially this year because of a generous grant from the state. I was wondering if it would be a good or bad idea to include a sort of "team fee" next year in order to improve our financial status. How many teams have a team fee? Is it common or uncommon. I actually have no idea since this was my rookie year.

I spent 300 bucks to got to the Finger Lakes Regional this year. Even though we did fund raising and the more you raise the less you pay, I can't stand selling stuff. So i didnt sell anything.

[Luckyfish05]

Team 292 is one of those teams that has a team fee, yet we are still sponsored my Chrysler (most of that money goes to actually building the robot). The team fee goes to like t-shirts, traveling, and staying overnight. Then, it's extra to make the trip down to Atlanta.

We do have ways that the members can work off their fee like a few others have suggested. They can work concessions at school events, or we've sold candy bars at school before, I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

If a member honestly can't afford to go and has worked hard our head mentor has been known to pay their way so they can attend the regional. That way someone who has shown the effort isn't missing out.

[Billfred]

This year, the Capitals collected $100 from each student who traveled. The fee covered functionally all the food for them over the 4.5 days on the road. There was some grumbling about it, but every student who could make the dates and qualified to travel was able to meet the requirement.

[vivek16]

We have a straight up 50 dollar join fee (the school offers scholarships).

We did not have a traveling fee last year because we only had 4 kids and 3 adults go to regionals and were able to cover costs with our sponsorship from Boston Scientific (Thank you!).

This year, we have a regional right on our doorstep (well, maybe the mailbox or the neighbors yard but you know what I mean) so we don't have to deal with hotels and stuff.

I am not sure about next year. I think people will end up having to pay a fee if we go to more than one regional.

-Vivek

[Akash Rastogi]

Joining Fee: None
Regalia: Uniform~$40 (required for travel to regionals and used all 4 years), Hoodies and hats optional
Travel: Trenton-no fee, Other regionals and Atlanta-pay for your tickets and hotel (fundraising is key)

We really don't have all that many other expenses. SIEMENS is a great sponsor as well as The John and Margaret Post Foundation. I would say don't go into team fees other than what each person pays to travel. Go fund raise and look for other sponsors and grants. That shows how much the program is supported and also makes it look more professional.

[AnthonyN1983]

Our team, skunkworks 1983 has a small start off fee of $25 for our polo shirts. But as far as competitions go, we have to pay/fundraise $250 for each regional. This includes hotel, transportation, and any other miscellaneous items that may come up.

For Atlanta on the other hand we have to pay/fundraise a grand total of $700. We also have to buy our own plane tickets (Additional ~$500). So it comes out to around $1,000 per student each year.

If you want some ideas of how we raise all this money, please check out our management plan!

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66055&highlight=management+plan

Anthony N.
Skunkworks Team 1983

[ajisjesus]

our school mandated that each person put up atleast one dollar i believe because were a club but other than that our team is "fee free"... well until it comes to trips in which case we pay less than $400 for any trip going anywhere. i think our SVR trip was a total $250 for the week that we spent there. I think it would be best that your team looks heavily into year round fund raising so that you could keep trip and team costs as low as possible. that way you can take as many people as possible on trips and your team will grow much easier... and that is the most important part of a FIRST team.. Longevity... well just short of selling your soul to robotics... jk:D

[CarterM]

Fondy Fire has a $100 fee. This is simply to cover hotel fees, team shirts, transportation, and several other items. This fee, in some kind of way, also encourages the student to be active in the entire process. And if the student is unable to pay the $100, but would like to join the club, we allow them in free. Send a private message if one has any questions.

[Nawaid Ladak]

My old, old (1402) had a $50 up fron tfee.. plus travel expenses, ie: if we were short on cash to pay for championships, 20 members would chip in about $75 and we would get $1500, then we would worry about travel and hotel which was about $70

[Rohan_DHS]

Team 1620 has a team fee of $150, which includes a shirt, and the meals at the competition. However, if someone is having financial problems, they can talk to the teachers, and get something sorted out.
The $150 can be reduced/eliminated if they bring a sponsor with at least a $150 dollar donation, or sufficient fundraising.

Previously, the team used to charge only $50 I believe, but this year our team had almost no money, so the team had to increase the team fee, which I feel is very fair.

[roborat]

Team 1249 has never had a team fee. We have always paid for everything. We have some great sponsors and do fundraising. We do not plan on any event that we do not have the money before registering. We attend two regionals a year. This year, we have ask our students to pay for their lunch at the competition just because it is so crazy trying to get them all together and in line at the same place. We pay for anyone that can not afford the cost. We usually have around 12-15 students on our team.

[wendymom]

1902 has $50.00 dues at the beginning of each year. Travel costs this year run $250.00 per trip. Everyone had to purchase a team shirt. $11.50 per. (most everyone got more than one)

The "dues" help with admin costs and start up robot budget. We do lots of fundraisers that can be put towards dues and travel costs. We also have about 15 different sponsors but most of that money goes to robot costs and registration fees.

We have found that "dues" will help separate the kids that truely want to be on the team from the ones that don't.

[smurfgirl]

Team 1124 does not have a team fee. We do a lot of local fundraising, and have recently been active in getting local businesses to sponsor us in addition to our corporate sponsors.

Students are required to pay all travel fees (airfare, hotels, food, etc.), but this only occurs when we go to the Championships. The Connecticut Regional is two towns over, so we go back home every night, and the school covers our busing.

We've talked about having a small fee at the beginning of the year to cover the cost of the team t-shirt, since everyone ends up buying one later in the year, and the money gets collected either way. Our sweatshirts, hats, and additional t-shirts are optional, thus would not be included in the team fee that has been discussed.

[Andrew Schreiber]

As a RUSH alum I can tell you we always had to raise some money for the team ~$500 a year. This came from an agreement with our old sponsor in which they matched whatever we raised. This was our solo contribution, on top of that we also had to work other events and raise money.

397 does not require any monetary contribution but it does require members to work at fundraisers which are held throughout the year.

Personally, I think a small fee that can be raised via fundraising or outright paid is a good idea to discourage the students who are just doing it for bad reasons.

[bduddy]

Our team is free to join, and since we only go to 1 local regional, there are no travel costs. We do require members to purchase T-shirts (usually $15, but we had 2 this year) and we ask parents for donations of $100 or up. Both, of course, can be waived if necessary.

As for the original topic, I think a "team fee" is a bad idea. There are some people for which a "small fee" really matters, and these are the people that need the skills FIRST offers the most; even if the fee is waivable, prospective members may not know that or be ashamed to ask. As for the "barrier to entry" thing, I think that teams should be trying harder to lower barriers to entry. Teams should, in my opinion, be inspiring people that didn't care that much in the first place; trying to cater to those students that already really want to join the robotics team is, IMO, missing the point.

[Pat Arnold]

MARS asks each student to fundraise, both by helping at team activities (car washes, a homecoming carnival booth, a "Guitar Hero" tournament) and by soliciting business or family sponsorships. Each student is expected to bring in $175.

As stated in other posts, we too have found this responsibility to be an effective way to find students who are willing to invest some effort into the team, so that we end up with committed members by the time robot build begins. With over 40 active students for the last 2 years, members don't appear to find the task too difficult. One mentor with an advertising background provides a fundraising workshop each fall explaining how to approach businesses. A deadline for earning $ is set in late Nov. or early Dec.

Outcome: We currently have 2 main business sponsors together contributing $11,000 and approx. 50 small business supporters who donate anywhere from $25 to $2,000 each.

[afi419]

I've had to pay like 100-200 or so dollars to go to regionals.

[Viper37]

Team 48 has a team fee system, typically around $150. But we also give the students an opportunity to work off the fee by encouraging fund raising, i.e. every x dollars raised in profit = y dollars off of the individual's fee(typically not a 1:1 Ratio). allot of students end up not having to pay a dime because of their efforts in fund raising.

Our team does something very similar. It works well and is very fair across the board.

[Tomasz Bania]

Looking at the posts in this thread, I see that we pay quite alot every year.There was no join fee prior to my freshman year (afaik), but the join fee my freshmen and sophomore year was $300, and it was lowered to $200 this year. The join fee includes shirts, sportcoats, and the regionals/nationals, but does not include food or "entertainment" during the regionals/nationals. On the other hand, our team isn't a "fundraising" team, but we have GM and our school district as great sponsors, and have many other sponsors in the works.

[lukevanoort]

I don't believe we've ever had a joining fee (although I personally like the idea), but we have to pay for our hotel rooms, food, etc. We don't have to pay much for travel because we are close enough to all the events we attend to travel in private vehicles (although I did make an attempt to convince the team to go to Waterloo this year... for some reason the 13hr drive didn't appeal to them). Travel costs for VCU are usually around $120 + food; when we went to Palmetto, it was $150ish + food (I may be a bit off on this one, I don't remember very well); and the Championship was around $150 + food back in 2005, but is $200 + food this year (rising cost of hotels, I guess). The team subsidized some of the cost for Palmetto and, IIRC, the Championship this year.

[MasterChief 573]

Because of the funding our team gets from the Chrysler Foundation we don't have a "team fee". However, we have started a travel fee that ends up being $300. $75 dollars for our one out of state regional that we drive to and stay at a hotel for and $225 for the championship which we fly to.

[jacob07]

I don't believe that my team has ever had a fee to be on the team. To go to the competitions the students have to be at the meetings (most of them, 100% participation is not required, but never turned down :D) and we do Little Caesars Student appreciation where we get a certain percentage of what they sell of the medium pizza's that we help make. That is one of our big fund raisers, it works really well also. Our sponsors help pay for the rest, along with other fund raisers to get the students to go to the comp. and not kill their wallets.

[thefro526]

For us we pay twenty dollars every year which includes a team, shirt, and any trips that we take a bus to. Anything overnight we pay out of pocket and fundraise for. The only trip I have paid out of pocket for is The Championship and I wanna say it cost about $530 this year. I suck at fundraising though so, I pay a lot more than other kids do.

[HOT_SOUP]

I know of several teams, though ours does not have one, that have a fee system or a dues policy. I think the dues policy is more effective as it tends to be less intimidating than a large all-in-one fee.

[MayaPapaya27]

On RUSH, we have to pay $500 for the season, but since the team is considered a club, students that attend Clarkston High School have to pay an additional $50 as a club fee to the school.

[PizzmasterP27]

Another thing we do on Team RUSH is alot of fundraising.
We have no major corporate sponsor, just like alot of rookie teams. We have many smaller sponsors, but still, our fees do not even get paid. We ask every student to donate a 500$ team fee and then we ask them to be a part of all of our fundraising. Fundraising is not easy or fun (COLLECTING AND RETURNING 100$ IN RETURNABLE CANS IS NOT FUN)...but the students build ownership in the team. With the prices for everything on the rise... we have had to do 10 times as much fundraising as last year. This year we actually volunteered to clean up our football stadium after homegames...making about 400$ per game.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Fundraising is not easy or fun (COLLECTING AND RETURNING 100$ IN RETURNABLE CANS IS NOT FUN)

Nah, just get a group together and do it. Yeah you have to raise more money (unless they aren't on the team) but it is often more fun to go through a neighborhood with friends. Plus, people are more likely to donate cash if they see a group out. Oh, and get some nice rubber gloves for those people who don't return their bottles for like 2 years and things start living in them...

[lingomaniac88]

Having a team fee encourages fundraising, and helps support the team. However, it can drive some people away. I wouldn't suggest it if you're trying to expand your team, but I would suggest it if you have a nice-sized team filled with faithful members.