What should go in a team handbook/rule book

[Dantvman27]

After the competition season concludes, during our post-season meeting, our team wants to make a new team handbook/rule book. I'm looking to have an outline of the book before the meeting, does anyone have suggestions as to what other sections we might want to include other than the following

Mission Statement/Vision
Schedule(Off Season and Build Season)
Student Positions, Rights, And Responsiblities
Mentor Positions, Rights, And Responsiblities
Parent Positions, Rights, And Responsiblites
Team "Standards" (Anything from team uniform to construction standards)
Team Events
Meeting Rules(conduct, attendance policy, etc)
Sponsor Rules
Other various team policies and the consequences for break the rules
Safety rules


Am I missing anything major that a team rule book would need to keep a team structured properly and running smoothly?

[alicen]

it's not necessary but it's nice to have a team history in the handbook, that way you can also use it for judge purposes and getting sponsors, and also so that students can see a little bit ofthe excitement to come (and to give a bit of credit to past students, etc.)

[Evert Timberg]

Mentor Positions, Rights, And Responsiblities
Parent Positions, Rights, And Responsiblites


I think it might be a good idea in the Mentor section to include a section on how much work you would like the mentors to do. Do you plan on having mentors follow a hands off policy, or a policy to work side by side with the students. In my opinion, the second option is preferable as it allows the students to build stronger technical skills.

[Tom Bishop]

A team history

A brief explanation of what FIRST is about.

What happens at events.

FIRST Scholarships.

[Wayne C.]

The link below has a compilation of about 20 of the better team manuals compiled for the RINOS project a few years ago. You might want to take a look. I kniow some of the links are broken but many are still alive

http://raiderrobotix.org/rinos/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=27

[Carol]

It's a great idea, but first you need to first determine who will be audience of your team handbook. Is it for new members, existing members, parents, etc, or all of the above? Then sit down and decide what you need to share with them. And also consider the size of the handbook, and how you will print and distribute it. If you have to make paper copies, the shorter the better. An electronic version is more versatile, but not as many people will take the time to read through the entire book. You should try and make most content evergreen, in order to minimize the amount of updating you will have to do next year.

Our team's handbook can be found at

http://moe365.org/teamdocs/handbook.pdf

[Dantvman27]

Thanks for the input, the audience is both new and current team members, the real push came about after a discussion about what is the mentors role and the students role and a few disagreements on team policy, since we had nothing in paper, it was hard to argue about the policy, and that it changed for year to year