Re: Build Season Schedule Questions?
 

Glad to hear most teams take Sunday's off for rest. the only sunday we did last year was on Kickoff weekend and it was only in afternoon for a few hours.

Re: Build Season Schedule Questions?
 

I grabbed just the first two columns of "Raw Data" and did a histogram. MrCool/MechEng83, can you add my second worksheet into your google doc?

Re: Build Season Schedule Questions?
 

Last year Texas adopted FIRST Robotics as an official UIL (which lays out some of the rules for high school competition in Texas) activity. The rules say a club or team cannot "require" more than 8 hours from Monday morning to Friday close of school. So we plan to cut hours to Monday 6-8, Tuesday 6-9, Thursday 6-9, Friday 6-10 and two shifts Saturday 10-4 and 4-10. UIL discourages activities on Sundays. Hopefully this does not impact our work flow too much! We are trying to be more strategic and scripted to be more productive during our limited (compared to previous seasons) meeting schedule. Crossing our fingers ...

Re: Build Season Schedule Questions?
 

Out of curiosity, how tightly related are the two changes of FIRST being an official UIL activity and the impending startup of Texas Districts (scheduled for 2017, but pushed off to 2018)?

Added:
Clint, I believe that many of the teams, particularly those with 30+ hours per week, are reporting "shop open" times, not mandatory times. Just looking at the first page of this thread, you can see this in posts 10, 11, and 15. I expect many of these teams have more than one coach/mentor with keys to the shop.

Re: Build Season Schedule Questions?
 

I see that some teams are putting in over 40 hours a week during build season, in addition to school and work. I have to ask, are you actually being productive during that time?

It seems to me that at that level of FRC; burn out and drop out rates would increase significantly.

Remember to plan your work and then work your plan.

Thomas Edison:
"Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing."

Remember that a failure to plan is a plan for failure.

Re: Build Season Schedule Questions?
 

My team, the Metal Mustangs, officially meets 6-8pm on Monday-Thursday and 9-4ish on Saturdays. In addition, any snow days or holidays are basically the same time frame as Saturdays. We tend to run later than the official times if things need to get done though, and some students often get there earlier on weekdays to get stuff done if necessary.

We really haven't had too many problems with burnout in my time on the team. We emphasize that schoolwork is still a priority and are pretty flexible if students have conflicts which helps if people need a little break. In addition , Fridays and Sundays are reserved for rest.

Re: Build Season Schedule Questions?
 

As some anecdotal reassurance, a few years ago 1257 cut back from 5-6 days a week with 4 + hour meetings to 3 days a week with meetings that defaulted to 3 hours (but could be extended if needed). We got a lot more done in that time, because there was less burnout and more motivation to get work done.

Re: Build Season Schedule Questions?
 

Build season: we take over the tech ed wing of the HS. Classroom , computer lab, wood shop, metal shop and auto shop.
M-Fri 3:30 - 10:30 (most students leave at 5:30 on the late bus because they do not have their own transportation)
Saturday 10-6
This is for both of our teams.
We have one coach there all the time, 2 are there most of the time and 2 sometimes.

Re: Build Season Schedule Questions?
 

Done!

Sorry for the delay, was out of town for Thanksgiving.

Re: Build Season Schedule Questions?
 

No correlation as far as I know.

Re: Build Season Schedule Questions?
 

Thanks, to both of you!