Commitment
 

Many of the members on our team are really concerned about the commitment required during the 6-week build season, and don't think that they would be able to meet more than twice a week.
Part of my job as "leadership" is to give the rest of the team a clear idea of what the build season is going to look like commitment-wise.
Therefore,
How much individual commitment is required to be on your FRC team?

I know commitment is really relative, so if you'd rather say how many hours are spent each week during build season, that works too

thanks a whole bunch!

Re: Commitment
 

The CyberCards meet six days a week (we take Sundays off or my wife would shoot me). School gets out at 2:30; we usually leave between 6-7. On Saturdays, we're here from 10:30-5ish.
We expect the veteran members to be here at least 80% of the time; JV members at least 60%. We realize there are other taxing issues for high school students (academics, sports, jobs, other clubs & organizations).

Re: Commitment
 

4 or 5 hours a day, 6 days a week, is about right for the first few weeks, then when you see how far behind you are it might go up to 7 hours a day.....or more.....

Re: Commitment
 

Usually about one-two hours per night for the first several weeks, with 8AM-5PM on Saturdays and then Sunday afternoons. Let's see now: 5 hours + 9 hours (with lunch) + 5 hours or so= minimum 19 hours per week. Not everyone shows up every night though; the only required meetings are Friday night and Saturday.

The later we get, the longer we go. I'd say as many as 25 hours or more per week during the last two weeks.

Then again, crunch time practically starts during Week 1.

I'd say that every team has their own time requirement/constraint. If you can only meet as a team twice a week, great. Use those times to update the entire team on what is happening. Smaller groups can meet more often and work on their portion of the robot.

Re: Commitment
 

Our team works similarly to Eric's. We meet 6 days a week for the first 3 weeks, and 7 days a week for the remaining 3 weeks. Different sub-teams meet on different sets of nights (ex: electrical meets T-TH, manipulator M-W, etc.) This works in the beginning while concepts and prototypes are being built.

After the first 3 weeks, people start showing up quite a bit more. Integration between teams starts to happen, and people are there as much as they can be. All team members are required to be there every Saturday during the entire build season.

Personally, I am there every day/night that we open the shop. So thats:

3-8 (5 hours) weekdays
9-5 (8 hours) weekends

5*5*6 (weekdays) + 8*6 (saturdays) + 8*3 (sundays) = 222 hours.

I am also there for the 72 hours before and during the UTC scrimmage, take 6 hours sleep, and then work on the bot for 48 hours. This adds an additional 120 hours, for a total of 342 hours.

So I guess for our team, the maximum number of hours that can be put in are 342 hours. For the past 3 years I haven't missed a day (perfect attendance!!)

We typically expect students to be there 2 nights a week plus saturdays, totaling 18 hours a week * 6 weeks = 108 hours.

108/222 regular build hours is 48% of the time. Thats approximately the expectation.

Keep in mind that we have a large team with 30+ students and this time does not include fundraising time. While 48% of the time doesn't sound like much, we are open an awful lot.

Jacob

Re: Commitment
 

Lets see... 973 does this:

Weekdays:
Shop opens at about 4pm, closes at about 10pm. Might go later on some days later in the season... All-nighters are nothing new.

Weekends:
Saturday: 10am to 5pm. Can go much later.
We don't often work Sunday, thats when we get our schoolwork done. However, those last few weeks...

Re: Commitment
 

Our team doesn't meet at a school because we're two schools combined, and our shop is between 10 minutes and 45 minutes driving for every member. During build season our entire team only meets twice a week, with subteam meetings whenever necessary (usually an additional meeting or two per subteam). Each meeting is between four and eight hours long, with an additional hour driving each (for me), so around 14 hours a week for me, plus extra time for subteam meetings, brainstorming, and anything else I take home to work on. Plus, once the end of the build season gets close, Chairman's Award committee meetings eat up a LOT of time.

Re: Commitment
 

We do Saturday-Thursday with the amount of time/night varying depending on what is getting done and how much needs to be done. I don't think we actually have a hard minimum attendance, but if you never show up and never do any work, you don't get to go to the competition.

Re: Commitment
 

Normally, we meet Mondays ("optional"), Tuesdays, and Thursdays, from 3-5.

During build, we meet every day but Sunday until 6-7 on weekdays and from 9-4 on Saturdays.

Of course, as mentioned, there are some things that prevent people from coming every day. We have some people on the badminton and mock trial teams, for example, both of which take coincide with build.

Leads are expected to attend basically every meeting, and for other members, we use attendance (recorded) and efficiency to determine who can come when we travel when school transportation and hotels are needed.

Re: Commitment
 

During our "offseason" period, (September-December, May-June), we meet regularly once a week for two hours, with extra events like fundraisers, offseason competitions, and community activities.

During our "main season", we hold meetings six days a week regularly, with some Fridays (the seventh day). Monday through Thursday are 3-4 hours each, Saturday is 8 hours, Sunday is 5 hours, and the some Fridays are usually 5 hours. This is a total of up to 34 hours a week, not including fundraisers, competitions, and other events.

However, we only require 60% attendance to go to competitions, and we offer opportunities to receive what is, in effect, "extra credit", for attending specific meetings to clean up our workshop, etc. (We try to be flexible, and there are exceptions in extenuating circumstances, such as one kid whose mom died of cancer.)

Despite the attendance requirement, you see the dedicated members at robotics nightly, often with >100% attendance because of our "extra credit" opportunities. I've seen as low as 3% attendance, as well, with the people who you wonder why they stick around on the team.

Re: Commitment
 

As mentioned earlier, our team is moving to a new schedule this year (which still has yet to be determined). There will be mandatory meetings for the whole team about twice a week, and then sub-team meetings different nights.

Last season we did Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays & Saturdays. Weekdays from 2:20 - 5-ish and weekends from 7a - 2. Of course when crunch time comes around it'll be modified, believe me.

Yeah, there are things that prevent some students from attending. We had a member last year who was also in band, and it conflicted big time. But like smurfgirl and lukevanoort said, there will probably be some people whose motives have to be questioned. They show up, you set a mandatory attendance, then they disappear into the mist. Try to see what's up, but if they're just whatever, then forget about it.

Re: Commitment
 

During the 45 day build season our schedule is:

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday - 4-7pm
Saturday 9am - 4pm plus or minus an hour

We want each student there 2 weekday afternoons or 1 Saturday during any given week. There will be a few students there every session and a few that will make it only once a week, for good cause.

If someone thinks that they can show up for a couple of sessions and then go on a trip, nope, it ain't gonna happen.

We work two major objectives - make sure the student gets some quality hours during the week, and make sure the student can get their other non-robotics bases covered.

Re: Commitment
 

Team 1676 generally meets weekdays 3:15 - 9 pm, Saturday 9 am to 7 pm-ish, Sundays off. This year we're probably going to take a day off during the week, too.

Some kids take their homework to meetings and they get it (or much of it) out of the way in a larger group, things go faster when people can explain it, then they put the saw to the metal.

2 days a week really isn't enough, unless you make 2 shifts (total time is 4 days a week), vbut there are other problems with that, as in how to hand off work from one shift to the next...

Don

Re: Commitment
 

6 days a week
6-9 (vets stay from 3-9) Mon, Wed, Fri
3-6 Tues, Thurs
8-8 Sat
+SRT (study hall every other day) 1.5 hours

Re: Commitment
 

We run three hours a day 6-9 on weekdays
Saturdays can very usually 9-5.
Sundays are reserved for emergencies

These are the set times there are members who arrive early and leave late

One weekend in 2004 we worked 5 hours Friday night, 15 hours Saturday, then another 9 on Sunday, so you can never really plan exactly how much time yours going to need. If your design & build run smoothly you might not need to meet everyday or if something goes wrong you could end up working extra long hours.

If you have members who can only meet a few times a week try setting a schedule up so they are spread out throughout the week, that way you can remain productive every day instead of having tons of people there one day then nobody show up the next. Either way make sure there is communication between everybody so you know who will be there when and what was accomplished the previous few days, We have learned from past experience that if only one person know whats going on with a certain design/device then they don't show up alot of efforts end up getting duplicated.