Re: Bylaws in Team structure???
 

Wait...what are so bad about by-laws? You haven't told us anything about them. I'm sure every FIRST team has rules and guidelines- like safety rules, participation rules (i.e. keeping a certain GPA), guidelines about how the team is structured, etc etc. The best course of action would be for your entire team to discussed whatever is being proposed by this mentor, and those of you who have problems with the suggestions can express them. I'm pretty wary of giving you ideas about how to completely trample someone else's opinion... =/

If your team discusses it and there is still a conflict, I'm sure the people on CD would be happy to give you advice about how to handle the problem, but we certainly need more information than what was given.

Re: Bylaws in Team structure???
 

Our team is incorporating this summer, so bylaws come with it. However, our current plan is to enact bylaws to govern organization/administration.

Example- Limiting the chairperson of the board to a term of x number of years would be a bylaw. Requiring students to pass a safety test before using tools would be a team rule, but not a bylaw.

Re: Bylaws in Team structure???
 

Many teams have handbooks which lay out the expectations, rules, and agreements for team members. For some teams, this may include by-laws. For others, it may just be "rules", or "expectations". You might want to look through handbooks to see what other teams are doing and help to establish a standard of what is right for your team. There are many handbooks available on CD, and there is also a list of handbooks available on usfirst.org, here.

Re: Bylaws in Team structure???
 

Bryan,
Make sure that as you develop the program for your team, you are talking about and working on two different aspects of the development, and communicating that well to others as you plan and discuss it.

1. the formation of the non-profit

2. team rules/guidelines/expectations set down in writing, usually in some form of a handbook.

You are using the term, bylaws, in both areas and that can be a little confusing, esp. because the non-profit is a completely different process than the development of a team handbook.

Good luck with both, sounds like you guys are going to have a very busy and productive off season.
Jane