Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

We are revising team documents for next year and considering participation and fund-raising requirements. So I thought I'd gather a little data. One poll response per team please!

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

Three notes -
We have opportunities during the summer, but these are optional. We do have expected number of hours of participation during the school year outside of build and competition season.

on "we require fund raising" is a bit too strong. A student can be a team member with five "bona fide attempts" at fund raising, though success at actual fund raising is a help in "lettering" and selection for leadership.

The only fund raising we have allowed students to "buy out" was our trip to CMP in 2015.

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

There is not this option! : We are not associated with any school or booster club.

But, overall, the options cover pretty much everything in my opinion... The results are interesting to see!

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

I don't understand why you say that. If you're not associated with a school, don't check any of the boxes that say you are. If you don't have a booster club, don't check the box that says you do.

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

You may consider a poll option around how travel costs (transportation, hotel, food) are covered - Team covers travel, Students/families cover travel, Team subsidizes travel, etc. Maybe just a line of "students pay to attend travel events" would cover it? Travel costs make up such a large portion of overall expenses there's a big difference between a team with a 20K budget where the team is covering travel costs vs. a team with a 20K budget where students are paying for each trip.

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

What about fees that are neither > $200 nor < $200 eh!? Is there no love for the exactly $200 fee!!

I found the way you phrased the questions interesting though. I hadn't thought to use the term "buy out" for the $200 requirement that we have but that is a really clear way to put it. Might have to change our documentation :D

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

Technically, I would not check any of the boxes since nothing applies... This is why I think this option could be there... I can't submit the poll if nothing is checked.

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

Are you a programmer by any chance? :D

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

I'm curious about the "appointed student officers" selection. I'm surprised that more teams have that, then have elected student officers. For those teams - who are the appointers, and on what grounds do they make the appointment?

We happen to have elections, where both students and mentors elect for positions. We have elections after the season is over, so mentor votes and graduating seniors votes are weighted slightly more heavily.

We have gone back and forth the last few years struggling with funding, and our approach. We have had mandatory hours required to go to competition (but always take all). There are certainly students who could only support a few hours a week, but provided more back to the team with work in those few hours than other people on the team who were much less rigorous in their work ethic during meeting times; so hours never seemed to work fair.

We have also had "mandatory" fundraising events, but not everyone can attend all. This year we are switching to a contributed value model. At any given fundraiser we take the total raised and proportionally "apply" that to each student based on how many hours they worked at that event vs total number of student hours at that event.

We have a seasonal estimate of necessary funds, and we deduct off sponsorship money to the team, and then see whats left to make up and go down the list student by student with what each will need to contribute (if anything, we have yet to require finds paid, but we have told families that this is on the horizon if we don't get enough sponsorship money).

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

We just started having a few appointed student officers for the upcoming year. Team captains are elected by student voting at the end of each year, and then during the fall sub-team leads are appointed by a committee of mentors and student captains.

We made the choice in order to increase effectiveness of our leadership structure. There is almost no way to keep elections from selecting the most charismatic or connected person, and that person may or may not be effective in the position. Appointment by committee (with the students having a say through their elected Captains) seems like a good way to help that effectiveness.

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

Also "IRS 501(c)(3) entity" is US specific. Perhaps it'd be better to generalize/categorize this selection

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

We tried the same thing this year. It worked really well for our team! The CTO (Chief Technical Officer) side had "build-leaders" that specialized or were group leaders for projects. I was the build leader for CAD this year, and I have to say it was very effective. We had meetings after every build session that was ~15 minutes long about what we did, what we need, if we need any help, and what purchase orders to create so we have cheaper shipping costs.

CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) and CAO (Chief Administrative Officer) also had a board of people working on projects and had meetings regularly. CAO, CMO, and CTO are all student elected positions.

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

There you go! :)

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

Its a job application for Code Orange. Student apply for positions and the lead mentors interview and choose our student leaders. Its also like a sports team too.

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

Very similar on 1678.

Students/Mentors can nominate any student for any position, including themselves. All nominees are interviewed by Outgoing Captain/Vice Captain and Lead Mentors. That group decides who to offer which roles.

Job application is a good way to put it.

-Mike

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

This is actually closer definition to how my team chooses it's Exec Board from what I said earlier as a "student election."

It's similar to the 'Job Application' as stated by Code Orange but there is also a recommendation vote from the students on who they think should get the position.

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

On 832 we have a student fee, but this is waived if necessary. Students don't "need" to participate, but we are a small team (<20) so most do, at varying levels. Really anyone is welcome, and last year the 'core' group made everything happen that needed to.

We have a few sponsors, but IMHO (and I am new to the team) we need a few more. Next season (the team meets the whole school year) I will explain fundraising, and we hope to recruit a few more students. Fundraising is a task for students, but Mentors cannot expect they know how to.

<$200 also == $200, for you programmers out there <sheesh>

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

Since its a job application, an applicant can choose to have references or letter of reference. References can from anyone, students, teacher, mentors, alumni and etc. We don't reject applicants if they don't have references, some of the students are very shy but we help them out. This helps avoid campaigning for a leadership position, we try to be a meritocracy.

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

<hanging head in shame> how do I edit poll to clarify choices?

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

That would have been a good question to include! Our students generally pay travel costs though last year we were able to subsidize one trip and pay the hotel. Plus our school pays for trips to Worlds (but not off the wait list). Another good one would be the same question for mentors. We try to pay for mentor travel since they are giving up vacation days already.

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

Excellent point, it should say something about a status that allows tax free donations. Not sure how to change it though...

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

Doh, sorry. Till I figure out how to change it, just use the first option.

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

I'm not sure sure about the accuracy of the question "We have scholarships available so money is NOT a barrier". I expected much more than 30% of respondents to check that box. Are there really that many teams out there who will not offer financial leniency or help to their students who can't afford the full cost of participation? Are that many students denied participation due to socio-economic class?

Perhaps people saw the world "scholarship" and assumed it only refereed to having some sort of named dollar amount that students can "win".

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

Also, the lack of a poll response is hidden by the other poll responses.

For example, 2706 is not associated with a school, as we are a community based team. So I didn't check any of the "associated with school" responses. But when you look at the total responses, the combined "associated with school" responses add up to more than 100%. Some teams are associated with more than one of these, but can you determine from this data that at least one team is associated with none of these?

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

It did confuse me too, but I said yes anyway as my team and school help out kids who cannot afford field trips to ensure socio-economic class is not a hindrance on whether they can do school activities or not.

We do not have an entry fee either, but we do have a fundraising requirement that can be either be filled by either writing a grant, a certain amount of fundraising hours, or fundraising money for the team. I'll try and upload a document later today that has my teams policies.

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

One could look at the team numbers of the users that respond. But that's annoying and would take a while.

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

I apologize for the verbiage. That is what how we phrase it when we offer assistance. I grew up in Appalachia, 5 kids and my mother in a small trailer home. I remember well not being able to participate in activities that required $$$. Any team I'm involved with WILL offer assistance so $$ is never a barrier and I'm sure most teams do this. The question was poorly worded.

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

Our team personally doesn't offer scholarships, only because we are associated with a public school. If a student would like to participate in any educational field trips (including competitions), and their socio-economic standing is a hindrance, the student can talk to the administration and make sure their participation is payed for by the school. I wouldn't call that a scholarship though, just financial assistance or aid.

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

I think, based on the context of the questions, that your situation would fall under the heading of "scholarship" even though you don't have a named fund that you allocate to students.

I'm interested though, do students on your team have other financial requirements and would assistance be offered for that as well? I am curious about how other teams handle payments and their funds.

Re: Team Organization & Fund Raising Poll
 

We don't have any other financial requirements like a participation . It is asked that you purchase a t-shirt if you plan on attending a competition - but it's not required. Either way our team funds allow us to significantly subsidize them (almost $25 per t-shirt to net $0 for the club sold for $10).

Even competitions never cost money to benefit the team. Say we go to NYC Regional, you'd be required to pay for the train tickets (they are reduced because of a group package and if you still can't afford them the school helps out). Also you are told to bring money to buy food at the location (or bring your own). I don't think the school reimburses food, but I'm sure if you really need them to you'd be able to work something out (or a mentor/peer/student's parent would help out if necessary).

Other offseason competitions (as long as they are school affiliated) the school gives us buses - so no transportation cost to worry about.

Overall, if you really can't afford any part of a trip, the school will work it out with you and a student by student basis.