Shutting down for the summer...
 

My team's school liason just decided to shut down the team's operations for the summer, and it's become a huge point of contention for the team members. People disagree with his decision (as do I- but I still support it); and it's already caused one of our engineers to leave. Are any other teams shutting down for the summer, and if so- how did you make the decision and how did your team take it?

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

This is just for the summer correct? You plan on coming back next year?

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

Yeahh, we're going to start back up in late August.. It's only for 9 weeks or so.

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

Perhaps it's a funding issue.

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

Here is a bit of advice to get things moving:

Try to organize events outside of the school that you can do as a team: go volunteer, have a few socials, attend an offseason comp to volunteer or cheer. Just because you are temporarily unconnected to your school doesn't mean you can't be effective. Do some robot demos if you can.

Get back that engineer. You will need him next year. Write him a letter as a team saying that you as members were very sad to see him go and invite him to return and try to work around not having school availability.

I wish you the best of luck. My team, among others, is very active over summer, and I invite you to email me or others to get any help you need.

Good luck,
Genia

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

No, he's worried about insurance costs and such.. Which is understandable.

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

Insurance is a touchy issue, that I don't encourage discussing much on public forums because that's a personal team thing.

However, let me change my ideas:

Do not volunteer in any organization that has immense liability: i.e., Habitat for Humanity or any other building. Yah, it's fun to build, but if insurance is an issue...

Get a parent group going to help you work that out. It could help in the future.

Find out the specifics of that policy. If it indicates that you cannot do certain things under the guidance of school officials and that is what you have to pay for, then don't do things under the guidance of school officials. This is a great time to become a team leader and organize a social event or two, or volunteering, or to carpool with parents to an offseason comp.

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

Thanks for the advice! I'm sure I'll bring up your views at our next team meeting...

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

I would recommend doing things like fund raising or other team building activities that will strengthen the bond on your team. You can never have enough teamwork.

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

I agree. That's one of the areas our team needs to work on, and shutting down for the summer might give us a chance to actually get to work with one another without the added stress of "OMG Nationals are only week away, what are we going to do?!?"

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

You can simply just hang out and get to know one another doing things together. Sometimes that's all it takes to become a more cohesive unit.

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

Also, if the school is not allowing you to do any fundraising and other activities in the name of the team (i.e. "This event is sponsored by [insert school and team here]"), just do said activities as a general group of people.

We've had to do this on our team because our schools only let us do two fundraising events every year (to keep things fair with the other groups and clubs), and it has proven very successful for us.

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

We were forced to shut down for the summer as our main mentor and teacher had to go out for back sugery...he will hopefully be back in August.

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

I guess I don't understand. When you say shutdown, you mean no building, fundraising, etc...?

If that's the case - go do fun stuff together. Call it team building. Our team has done or will do:

- Relay for Life (24 walk-a-thon for cancer fundraising)
- Star wars marathon. (watch 1 and 2, go to the theater to watch 3, then go back to someones house and watch 4, 5, and 6.) (And if I found out they watched the ewok Christmas, I'm going to have a serious talk with them.)
- A sumo bot competition with a $30 total limit.
- I think laser tag is in the works.
- They want to do paintball, but that takes some serious money and permission slips.
- Go see "Robots"
- Etc...

None of which the "team" offically runs. Just stuff they all do together. It's good for team unity.

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

I mean that we can't meet as a team or at our team's base. And thanks for the ideas, hopefully we can use them!

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

Why can you not meet as a team over the summer?? This seems like a dominant school system who is very overprotective and unfair to your needs as a FIRST team who needs to fundraise year round and work like a team at all times, not just when it is conveinent to your school.

Sounds like you have bigger underlying issues with your school/ school administration/ school system/ or BOE.

As for that reason, wow.. and this is an issue why?? I betcha at least 75% or more FIRST teams can not get access to their "home base" during the summer yet still are able to meet during the summer.

Why is this an issue?

There has to be more to this story.

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

I'm not exactly sure what that entails, but it's just what I was told. We're having a team meeting this week to discuss everything, so hopefully I'll get an answer then.

And I'm sure we'll all be able to meet over the summer, just not discuss team business. Which is sad, because I think pretty much all we want to do is work on our team ethic (and fundraising would help- but our school won't allow us to). It's a really complicated issue, and I don't understand/ know the whole story.. All I know is what I posted. But thank you for your input! You raised some good points.

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

I am sure you could do some of this stuff (like fundraisers and robotics work) without the school knowing. Just don't do it as a First team. Do it as a group of people interested in robotics. Maybe you could get your team members to have accounts on Chief Delphi and do some work using the private messaging system. Thats what my team does.

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

Lack of school involvement doesn't mean that you can't be active in FIRST.

When 818 went to IRI last year, the school district wasn't involved at all. Two parents were in charge of the trip, and we did all of the fundraising on our own.

As long as you can get ahold of the robot, you might be able to swing something like that. ;)

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

Good day to you all!

I've tried not to reply to a lot of the comments made, as it seems to only people more riled up. However, since this has now gotten (inter)national attention, by way of this forum, I feel obliged to respond.

I am the moderator of Team 811, a computer teacher at our school, and it was my call to close us down for the summer. Despite my efforts trying to get my reasons across to the team, some have felt especially hurt by the decision. FIRST and foremost, my reasoning is one of team invigoration. For the past two summers, we've tried to remain open 12 months a year. During each of the past two summers, we started off with grandiose plans (who was going to design a killer transmission, who would explore arm design, etc.). And for each of the past two summers, things kind of just petered out (who got too busy with a job, who had family vacations to worry about, who got injured and couldn’t make the journey, etc.) And unfortunately, at the end of each summer our team members showed signs of burn-out.

We just finished up an extremely lackluster year. The team started the fall uninspired, we had to beg students to assist for our FIRST Lego League tournament, our robot design was barely finished before ship date, it almost seemed an effort to get participation in regionals / Atlanta, and our robot has been sitting on the loading dock at school for nearly three weeks since its return.

I polled literally dozens of people (students, adults, parents, school administration, teachers, members of staff, sports team leaders, leads of other teams, even the athletic director!) over the past few months. Together, we came up with the idea of taking the summer off. The team needs a mental health break, needs to recharge its collective batteries. Taking the summer off will allow this to happen.

The decision was not unanimous by any stretch, but it most certainly was not “unilateral,” as has been stated. Unfortunately, some who feel otherwise have been offended by the decision. (Personally, this is evidence of the need to take time off.)

People will grumble, some may hate me for this, but ultimately, everyone will get over this. AND, come August / September, the team will come back recharged and refreshed.

Thanks for listening.

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

hmm.. sounds to me like you're not shutting down, you're taking a much-needed VACATION. As with every activity, some people need time off to re-group and others thrive on the constant interaction and deadlines. If some of the team members feel as though they will be going through FIRST-withdrawal, have them use the time to think of ways to improve the team dynamics, or team organization, research some fun teambuilding exercises to use when you get back together in August, write a team handbook draft, etc. while they are "on vacation".

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

Its ok to take time off. FIRST is not running away, vacation is a good thing. Too much FIRST is not always a good thing. Take some time off, do something different. Get into a relationship:) enjoy life. There is more to life then FIRST IMHO.:)

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

i agree that a break is a good idea. it is good to just sit down and relax once in a while. there is no problem with that. FIRST is definatly not going anywhere. I know that 340 generally takes a break in the summer with some events that are planned.

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

well s.p.a.m. sorta shuts down...

we don't do generally meetings b/c we don't have a place to meet since the school shuts down for a few weeks. we just have our summer camps going on and perhaps we'll be attending the off season. the website team well the webmaster keeps everything updated and continues to work on it.

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

Re: Shutting down for the summer...
 

we shut down all the time in the summer

its not that big of a deal just take the time and enjoy it because the moment u go back FIRST starts and new challenges need 2 be tackled