Dcarr,
Great point, the key is not charging on a fee but give then an opportunity to contribute financially for the team so the team has "ownership".
And I usually do not say it as a "fee" but have it be implemented differently depending the circumstances.
For a new team like in this case for Chicago, I would have everyone bring a "snack" in the value of $10 as their contribution and set a rotating schedule. And have the mentors provide a pizza party to the team at the end if everyone brought food at the working meetings.
The one thing that work for us is having the telecoms, as we work one to one with the mentors and coach and get the nuanced information for us to be able to provide good advise and be able to support the team on the long term, everything else is "dynamic", we haven't be able to give advise that works for every team, we provide advise on case by case......
We have two main paths for robotics: Clubs ( Build Demo Robots) and Teams (Build Competition Robots). We usually like to start with students on elementary schools as club and as clubs mature go to teams....
Quote:
Originally Posted by dcarr
Has this been shown to work in your experience? I fail to see how chipping in a few dollars will be a major factor in changing team dynamics. This isn't any different than typical club dues. Taking students to the next level and encouraging them to adopt the mindset that robotics is far more than "just another club" requires something other than nominal capital investment.
Sidenote: we do charge a $100 fee for all team members (those with difficult financial situations are able to get assistance). However I don't consider this a major factor in a students' motivation or commitment.
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