Member Registration Fees
 

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

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

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.

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

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.

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

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.

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

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.

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

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)

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

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).

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

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

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

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.

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

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.

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

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?

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

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.

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

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.

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

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

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

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.

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

Our team allows our students to choose which events they want to go to each year: Orlando, Travel Competition, and Championship(if qualify or register). That allows us to know how much each student needs to attain in either fundraising or getting sponsorships which goes towards travel costs and hotel. We also allow the students to either funraise towards a team shirt or to just pay for one.

Since we consider Orlando our home competition and we do not need a hotel it only costs $25 for each student to go to that competition even if they do not go to any other competition; this has been very helpful for first timers that are not completely sold on the team. Most times if a student went to all 3 in one year it would range from $700-$850 per student. We also allow students and/or their parents to pay any leftover if they couldnt acquire the needed amount to pay for the competitions they had signed up for, but we do not allow for any one student and/or their parents to completely pay for their travel out of pocket.

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

Our team has always tried to do this but it never seems to work out. Parents just buy out the quota or the student doesn't meet the quota, then the parent complains about the quota. Almost tempted it put it into a signed document at the beginning of the year for them to meet said quota.

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

See I believe this is completely reasonable compared to what some parents pay for there children to play on elite teams for sports which is usually at least 6 grand.

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

And most kids that pay to play those elite sports dont get to go to Canada, Colorado(2x), Atlanta(4x), Orlando(4x) and Connecticut in their 4 years in high school.

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

Students pay $25 club dues (in our school most clubs have dues, although most are close to $10) that includes the first tshirt and a pair of safety glasses. Any other tshirts cost the standard price, which varies year to year but normally is around $8.

During the years that we have gone to a second regional or are lucky enough to go to CMP, students are responsibly for basically all their meals and pay around $150 which covers the bus ride and several days in a hotel. We kind of based this set up off of the other clubs and sports teams in our school in addition to our own financial situation.

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

Many have replied, but I'll go ahead and throw a couple of pennies into the ring.

My team collects fees, but they serve a dual purpose.
- The first is obviously to get some money into the system. Comparatively speaking, it's not much, but anything helps.
- The second purpose is to push the students a little bit. If the only requirements for joining a team are to simply sit in a chair and sign your name, then we're likely to get students who are there to goof off.

This, of course, comes with the understanding that if you cannot pay the fees, you simply need to talk to the mentor and something is usually arranged (I assume the fees are waived).

With this said, our $40/semester fees (a recent price hike) don't go too far on the team. With a fully developed VEX and FRC programs, the fees are often directly placed into the team, and students must burden partial costs of transportation/living costs while traveling.

- Sunny G.

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

There are no fees to be a CyberCard. However, if a student wishes to travel with the team, he/she must raise at least $250 in sponsorships (some students are sponsored by their families, immediate and extended) and meet other criteria.

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

We do have fees;
every member need to pay 1500 shekels (which equals to 375$) or mentoring FLL/Jr.FLL team and pay 750 shekels (which equals to 185-190$).
All team members get safety glasses, team T-shirt, bus ride to the regional and etc.
If we get to the CMP (it happened once), the students have to pay more (according to the money that left to the team or donated to the CMP).

In our city the fees are needed;
1. In order to find the best team members
2. To help to the team budget

We ask the students to pay the money as soon as possible but we don't push them, they can pay even after the regional(if they have some of problems).

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

Sometimes team fees is a touchy topic, but in this case, it doesn't seem so :)

Team 1002 normally charges $50 dues, because we need the funding to do our outreach projects and fund our 3 teams, with all of the other team building activities as well. However, we do have financial concessions for those who can't afford it. Our dues covers the cost of the T shirt and a pair of safety glasses. However, normally the student has to pay about $90 for the regional cost, and sometimes more for Championships.

Our team also feels that if there is a monetary cost, we will have more dedicated individuals join, and those that can't afford it can still ask for financial concession, which shows the dedication in that individual. And trust me, dedication becomes a bit of an issue when you have 100+ people sign up, because often some of these individuals just sign up to miss school for competition, or just want to put it on their college application.

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

No registration fees here, though students wanting to keep their team shirts generally have to buy them (students who put in "x" number of hours get a shirt at no cost though).

In the past (pre-2009) we also had a system where your cost to go to an event was based on the number of hours you put in (more time = less cost). It was made clear at the time though that cost should never prohibit someone from going to an event.
With the districts in MI making the events so much closer & cheaper, and because of our smaller size team the past few years, we've been using a system closer to "put in at least 20 hours during the season (or something like that) and you can go on the trip". It helps motivate kids to show up to more build meetings, while at the same time sort of "weeding out" the kids that aren't really interested.

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

On 1747, IIRC I paid $200 in registration fees each year (2008-2010). The fees covered 2 team T shirts and all travel/hotel expenses for trips (2 regionals and chaps during those 3 years) among other things. In addition, everybody was assigned a business or two to try to get sponsorships from. Students who couldn't afford the fees were given a pass (although I do not recall anybody being subject to such). There also were student-run fundraisers to go towards student fees.

On 2783, I paid $100 in fees for the one year I was a member (2011). That covered a team T shirt and a team Jersey among other things. Travel expenses were on the student's family (although the hotels were block registered). There were no "free passes" per se but it never came up so I wouldn't know.

Both teams had the food/snacks provided by the students' families on a rotating schedule. 1747 was (at the time) considered pursing food sponsorships in the year(s?) after I moved away; 2783 has food sponsorships for the FLL regional they run every year.

Re: Member Registration Fees
 

Having mentored two teams with significant socio-economic differences, the original team didn't have "registration" fees, however, they paid for 100% of their trip costs. They did a "fundraiser" which was more about team building and typically the parents would just cut a check for $600 - $800 to travel to the local regional (overnight/hotel), a travel regional (airfare/hotel), and champs (airfare/hotel). We had scholarships available and didn't really have to ask which students could or could not afford it, I would just speak privately to their parents, they would give me a small amount (maybe $50/$100 per trip) and we would cover the rest.

Moving to my new team, we ask for $10 for their team shirt in October. Veterans don't need a new shirt since it is last years shirt in the fall. Then, I found out quickly that this particular group was not able to cut me a check for $200 (or even $100), so we sold about 5,000 bags of veggie chips and other various snacks to raise the money for their trip. I am going into this school year knowing that they each need to raise $500 and giving them ample opportunity to raise the money. I will always find money for the robot and the adults going on the trip, even if I just pay for it myself. I tried having parent meetings, but found out that their parents are working their 2nd job, so that was a bust. Basically, I am assuming that we have to raise everything on our own and if they can cut a check great, if not, its already paid for.

I am certain that no one is denied the opportunity to be on a FIRST team based on finances. I do think that it shouldn't cost your team anything to recruit the students in the fall, which typically means the cost of the t-shirts. You can ask them for the cost of a t-shirt and if your school charges for field trips typically, you can ask them for that fee.