this year was 4 nights, and we collected 104+ hours for the one weekend...remember the confusion of signing out at 11:59 pm and signing back in at 12:01 am?

Mmm...Energy drinks. :)

we just have a sign in sheet, if you come to the meeting, you sign the sheet.

our team has a 72 hour min and a 300 dolar min to be able to go to the competition, the hours are fairly firm but the money is a deffinate must! i myself have logged over 200 hours in those 6 weeks but i know people who barely managed to get in 30 and then where suprized when they found out. We are also having some problems with people showing up to help with the spare parts and such, even though its another opertunity for hours.

We have a small enough team (15) that the teacher (and me) can easily keep track of who comes and who doesn't. We have to pretty much pay our own way to the events, since our team doesn't have that kind of money. We had only one case this year of someone not being able to come to our competitions because of lack of participation, though some of us worked a lot harder than everyone else.

We kept time sheets, but it really doesn't mean anything. Everyone who wanted to ended up getting to go to Nationals, so it didn't really matter how much time anyone had.

In 98 and 99 the Technokats had a 50-hour min. I just have to say 72 sounds a little high because the students do have other things to do like sports teams and I barely made the 50 in 1998 because I had wrestling practice every day when everyone else was at the shop.

We always go to two regionals, the local UCF one and one out of state, and we also go to Nationals. The requirements change every year. We each keep track of our hours and turn them in by the month for the first semester. Hours should be singed off by a mentor or other person of reputablitly, they should also be resonable....10 min is not an hour, but if you work for 3 hours and 45 mins 4 hours is acceptable. This year we were going to the Seattle regional and Nationals. To go to Seattle, you needed 60 documented team hours and 5 fundraisors, which were defined as doing anything that brings 50 dollars into the team, or going to/and or particiapation in a set team fundraiser. For nationals you needed to have 90 hours, and 7 FR's.....which seems like alot, but since we start in june its not really....the last week alone i turned in 51 hours, i stopped turning them in when i hit 120.

Sign In Sheet
 

Well, since we only have about 11 members, yes, very small team, we just have a simple sign-in-sheet. This really means nothing...since our Coach tells who can go where. Just about anyone can go to regionals...but when crunch time comes for the championship, if you didn't come, forget it.

Now, to you other teams...how the heck do you even get everyone to keep track of these things? You must be dedicated to these time clock programs. I couldn't keep that up for a week. It's also a bit unfair, but I guess that you have to do something like that, if you have a large team, and low funding.

oh i know, 72 hours realy isnt that bad though, however there where some people who had to work and had practice and such, those are reasonable excuses but what peeves me is the ones who cant get it in becuase they are too busy playing video games, not to mention when they are there they dont do ANYTHING!

Last year, our team used a time-clock and it was not used much. Nor did we find a good use for the data. The rationale was: Wanna complain about why something looks like it does? Or wanna complain why something was built or designed that way? Let's go look at your time card... Oh you have only showed up 5 times... Tough Luck. -- The result: The dedicated came and others stayed home.

This year, I have designed an Access database that tracks data on every team member: name, address, e-mail, parents, school advisor, parking spot # etc. I also added in a table for fundraising and attendance during the summer and the fall.

At the beginning of the year, each member must sign and have their parents sign an agreement that states they will abide by the team bylaws which include a fundraising clause.

New Members must raise $50. Returning Members $100. Team Student Leadership must raise $150. These are all minimums. We do not care how people bring in the money, whether it is talking with family, friends, etc. working on a team fundraiser where the total team hours is divided by the income, or the money might come from another source.

The fundraisng division works with local comapnies and granting organizations to come up with most of the money.

my team has logged ours for a while. We don't work as often as many teams, but myself i've put in roughly abotu 115 horus in the 6 weeks. And that doesn't count all the work i've put in on it during classes, but each team is different so go figure.

This year, we had a log book, and a parent would sign students in and out as students arrived and left.

To be on the team, you had to have at least 60% of official hours, and to go to any competitions, you had to have 80% of official hours.

I think "official hours" was somewhere in the 100-150 range. Figure 3 hours on most weeknights, 8 on Saturdays, and 4 on Sundays for 6 weeks.

You could also get approval to write in any extra hours for work you did outside official hours.

Of course, the real performers put in well over 100% of "official" team hours, especially the last 2 weeks.

Last year, students kept track of their own hours, but that didn't work as well. I also kept track of my hours last year, even though I am not a student, and I put in well over 200 hours. This year, I started a new job, with long hours, so I didn't come close to that, but I was probably not far from 100% considering I also took care of some team stuff off-hours.

to further explain what Pierson said

As far as the regionals go, once you have earned your money bought your shirt and arranged to stay in Seattle with the group if you wish to you are basically going to regional. This system works because we only go to one regional and it is only a hour to an hour and a half drive for parents (some students have been known to get there a bit faster...but that's another story). Just because you come to the regionals doesn't mean you get a job at the regionals however and most of the time as it turns out people who don't have a job there just don't come. With a team of only about 30 students signed up and 12 who usually come it isn't a very large issue.

Nationals...the last time we went to nationals was two years before I joined. Sorry I don't know how it was done but since we still have one mentor from that time I'll ask him tomorrow at our meeting for you and see if he remembers.