Team fee survey
 

We are a second year team and last year we did not want to charge a team fee or dues to be on the team. We did not want to discourage any student from joing the team.

This year we are going to charge a fee to help defray some costs. What do other teams charge?

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Re: Team fee survey
 

My current team is $250 per student.
My previous team is $250 for rookies, $500 for veterans.

These are all meant to be sponsorship monies raised, not checks from mom & dad. They're also both minimums - we regularly had students individually raise $1k+.

For students with hardships, we always made accommodations.

Re: Team fee survey
 

In previous years we have had students raise $300 via fundraising and donations. This year we are asking students to bring in $200 dollars. We have had multiple fundraising activities throughout the year for students to raise funds and many raise the rest of their funds via donations from local businesses.

Re: Team fee survey
 

No fee to join, they pay with their time and dedication. Though not the reason for this policy, a convenient side effect is that nobody feels entitled to being a team member/traveling/etc. because they paid their dues.

They pay a $50 activity fee to the school, however it's one fee for as many activities as they want to do and doesn't get back to us directly. I think the activity fee goes to cover facilities expenses, and we have a dedicated shop in the school so I have no complaints about that policy.

Students are responsible for their own travel fees, however they have the opportunity to work as day camp counselors in the summer to offset costs. Subsidies are provided to those that need it, and we are fortunate that each of the past few years a couple families have volunteered to cover their own child as well as donate to cover another that needs it. The rest of the travel deficit comes from the general team fund or from a non-profit associated with the district that helps support student involvement expenses. By worlds last year about half the team was subsidized some amount, but that was three travel events in the span of seven weeks. We publish projected travel budgets at the start of the school year so families are forewarned six or more months ahead of event related expenses.

Edited to add: Travel is charged at cost for hotel, food, and transportation. If we spend less for whatever reason (food gets donated, hotels get unexpectedly discounted) the extra gets rolled over into the next event and divided among the kids. Generally the entire team travels together, though we have had one or two students stay behind for academic or familial obligations.

Re: Team fee survey
 

My team hasn't had membership fees in the three years I have been on the team, and the only monetary demands are made if and when we are invited to worlds. Our business team has always been able to cover the costs for a season (Robot + Travel) by reaching out to sponsors. This will be the first year that we are registering and competing at two separate regional competitions, so our financial security might change. But, as per the norm, we don't charge our members a cent.

Re: Team fee survey
 

Being associated with a California public school, we have never and will never charge a fee to participate, and legally, we can't. Approximately 60% of the students in our school live at or below the poverty line, and we are not a "pay to play" team. Quite honestly, the students who cannot afford high participation fees are the ones who need a program like this most.

Even the first T-shirt we cover. Traveling trips are optional and are charged at actual cost, which typically ends up being about $400 per student per trip. We are asking each student to make a conscious effort to sell $50 worth of product in our fund raiser, which is not a lot to ask. Sales in excess of $50 of product will count toward offsetting their individual trip costs at rate of 50% of gross revenue.

I will be pointing my students to this thread, to show them how teams in other parts of the country do it.

Re: Team fee survey
 

To contribute toward rent for our space and register under the 4H program costs each member about $150 a year, usually paid right before/during build season.

Re: Team fee survey
 

Team 2791 charges dues of $200/year, with a discount to $100 if a student is on free or reduced-price lunch. Our lead mentor always emphasizes that being unable to afford the dues should never stop someone from being on the team and to talk to him if that is a concern.

Team 1257 does not charge membership dues; our district does not allow clubs to charge membership fees.

Re: Team fee survey
 

FRC 4607 charges $150 for the season with a $100 volunteer check (in case parents do not do any volunteering for us).

Re: Team fee survey
 

Team 4063 does not charge any kind of fee. Travel, meals, lodging and uniforms are all provided.

Re: Team fee survey
 

I believe its $25 for chop shop.

Re: Team fee survey
 

So, it sounds like if teams are able to cover all of the cost they do. That is what we did last year. This year I don't think we are able to cover all of the travel expenses like last year. So, it sounds like that teams that do charge a fee are basically trying to cover the cost of their teams travel expenses.

When travel costs are the 2nd highest expense for our team we have to do something to help offset that. Ideally I would love to have a sponsor cover it all but at this point we don't have that in place.

Re: Team fee survey
 

I don't think that is the case at all.

Everyone above seems to either charge some form of money regardless of their bank account size or charge nothing at all out of principle (many because they are not allowed).

We ask for $200 from each student yearly (as a condition for attending competition) and take a lot of steps to make sure they can raise that money through fundraisers or sponsorships. We also assign each student a local business and encourage them to approach other businesses as well. We run "presentation training" yearly to give everyone practice at giving a small pitch for the team.

As others have said, if there are financial constraints on families, we always work something out so their student can still participate.

Re: Team fee survey
 

Our team works a little differently due to our relationship with the school but essentially students are not charged anything to be on the team. Students pay for the trips they attend (partially subsidized by the school) and team shirts. There is no fee, however, just for being on the team.

We function similar to a sports team at our school where students don't pay to be on the team but pay for their uniform and long distance travel expenses.

Our school is also able to provide need based financial aid in some cases.

Re: Team fee survey
 

Our student fees this year $280, rookies and veterans. That includes 4-H registration fee (we're also a SPIN club), $60 for food during build season, and $200 for "volunteer fees".

Volunteer fees are designed to encourage parents to help support the team by supervising in the shop or at events, carpool mentors, help with fundraising, etc. We meet 10 months of the year, so that's $20 per month. If a family volunteers 4 hours in a given month, they get the $20 back at the end of the year. If a parent is moderately active with the team, it's easy to earn all $200 back.

Competitions are optional for students, and they must pay us for their share of the lodging+food. Other team funds (grants, fundraised) cover hotel+food for collegiate mentors that travel with us.