Team rules
 

Hey all,

My team right now is trying to get all the kinks hammered out with our leadership setup and rules. We are a rookie team that found out we are a team in December, so we didn't have time to get a very structered rules set.

My question is this, do the teams out there have a written down set of rules or is it more implied guidlines? If you do have rules, what is the discipline for those who break them? If you do not have rules, how do you maintian order?

Thanks for your help with this,
Chris

Re: Team rules
 

We have a handbook that our steering committee developed. This consists of behavioral rules, along with other rules, such as required participation.

We use the same system that FIRST has implemented this year (slightly modified). A student can receive a Yellow Card for bad behavior (can be received by any adult mentor, even if the student is not in their group.) The student must wear this Yellow Card (It clips on to their shirt) every time they come to robotics for the rest of the build season. They are allowed 2 Yellow Cards. After that, the third Yellow Card turns into a Red Card, which means suspension/removal from the team, depending on circumstances.

The handbook also outlines participation requirements, such as # Build Season Hours, # of Dollars, # of Community Service Hours, # of Group Fundraising Hours, # of Entries into Patron Book, etc. Check out Penfield Rolling Thunder's website; This is what we modeled our team after. They have all of their material available online (I think...)

If you have more questions as to how our team operations, feel free to ask.


Jacob

Re: Team rules
 

Whats the URL for the thunder site?

Chris

Re: Team rules
 

This
May
Help

Re: Team rules
 

TechnoKats have their handbook published on their website.

http://www.technokats.org/handbook.php

It defines costs, fundraising, student involvement requirements, school grades, time committments, travel, etc..

I'm not sure what type of "rules" you are looking for exactly, but if our students do not maintain their school grades, or put in the required time for the team, and other various things that are required, they don't get to travel to competitions. As for other discipline matters, it's case by case, but we don't typically have any major issues.

Re: Team rules
 

Rolling Thunder's website: http://www.penfieldrobotics.com/ The link for the Team Handbook is on the front page.

Re: Team rules
 

We have team rules, though we don't exactly have a "list" (except for travel rules, which are pretty straightforward and are given to us before the competition season). In general, students are just expected to be on their best behavior and remember that they are representing the team.

A new "three strikes" rule was implemented this year to enforce discipline. If a student has three discipline issues, he or she can be restricted from traveling. Thankfully, nobody was subject to this rule this year. Everyone represented the team very well during both the build season and at competitions. :)

The biggest thing that our team does to enforce discipline is to hold interviews each year. On the way back from Atlanta, the whole team is disbanded (with the exception of our end of the year banquet in May). Every student must reapply, and if they have had discipline issues or haven't done their share of the work, they might not make the team again. Now, this may seem hard on some students, but they are allowed to re-interview later in the year and show if they are ready to be a member of the team again. This system has worked very well for us.

Re: Team rules
 

Here is a link to our team's Student Handbook for this past season, available on our website:

http://www.delphielite.com/modules/g...20Handbook.pdf

It covers a number of topics such as team organization, travel guidelines, and grade requirements. It also has a full year calender that demonstrates our pre-season and build-season schedules, as well as copies of student forms used by the school.

Re: Team rules
 

Here is team 25's manual. I know the date on that is 2004, but the only major updates have been to add a section about our animation team. Everything else is more or less the same.

Re: Team rules
 

Martin, when does your team reassemble to hold interviews? Is it the next year or after competition? It sounds like a good idea but I'd like to know some more details so I have the most options available.

If anybody on the team gets a referal for breaking your schools honor code, i.e. cheating, lying or stealing, do you remove them from the team? I know that the honor societies at Westfield do that so I was wondering what everybody else does. It is not a problem and I hope it does not become one, I'm just trying to get the team a solid foundation for future years.

Another Idea I am thinking of I am inspired by my boy scout troop. If you are suspended or expelled from school, the example I was given was for drug use but its not limited to that, then you must sit down with the comitee and say why you should be allowed in the troop.

It sounds alot like what Martin was talking about but without having to interview the whole team, just those who are a problem.

Thanks for all the posts and help, I'll let you know when we get a solid rule set down,

Chris

Re: Team rules
 

We use a Team Constitution that has been in effect for this season. It was created in order to have more autonomy within the school's chain of command. So far it has been invoked once to remove a student.

Re: Team rules
 

We have a simple set of unwritten rules that people just sort of pick up on in the pre-season. Mostly it is simple common sense as opposed to any very specific or strict rules. When it comes to behavior you simply act with respect towards everyone on the team and everyone else we happen to meet with in the course of the season, and that basically covers all the bases. When it comes to safety we have the simple safety glasses when operating the tools in our machine shop, and make sure you keep the point bits pointed away from you. We also have a set of guidelines and releases we had to sign at the beginning of the year.

However we have had to create one very specific rule. Don't put sprockets in an empty pizza box and then throw it into the garbage. Something we learned from experience. :rolleyes:

Re: Team rules
 

As a rookie team, we only had a few rules:
1. You had to participate for 160 hours (which was quite easy, some kids ended up with close to 300 hours)
2. You had to bring in a meal for the team once during the build season
3. You had to raise $100 for the team

This worked out well for us and we will probably do something like it next year

Re: Team rules
 

Do any of your mentors belong to NEMO. http://www.firstnemo.org/

They are a support group and information exchange for adults running teams. They have lots of good stuff there.

Remember that your rules and handbooks are always a work in progress. The best thing that you can do is get something out there and keep refining it. Don't wait until you feel it is done. It will never be done.

Re: Team rules
 

This is to explain what Ben was talking about a little more:

We do disband the team on the ride back from Atlanta. It has become a sort of ritual that has been done for the last three or four years. All students must reapply with a resume and interview with teachers and engineers. To make interviews go faster we schedule two groups of interview teams and the students spend 15 minutes with one then switch and spend 5 with the other. Students are rated on performance by all the engineers and teachers and we go over that rating with the student from that year and let the student tell us why they should be on the team. All the students know that they have to build their resume through the year so they push to do things like car washes, demos, Lego mentoring, Vex Mentoring, learn how to operate different machines or software, and so on. This has worked for us but I know there are teams that don’t like this type of structure and that is fine.