[Libby K]

1923 does charge a fee for the FRC team.

$200 gets you safety glasses, a t-shirt, a polo, and the ability to qualify for travel with us.

In order to qualify for travel, students must attend a certain percentage of meetings (more meetings for leaders than other students). They must also attend our pre-season and our pre-event workshops on things like scouting, team history, etc - all led by student leaders, as well as sign a very thorough student & parent handbook. Our parents are also required to give time chaperoning our build space (not on school property) as well as money and/or food at least one time during the build season. The student and parent sign off on this when they pay their dues.

Sadly, with our multi-event travel costs we occasionally do need them to pitch in on travel cost. (The downside of inconveniently-placed-for-us districts).

So it ends up being more than $200 if we can't get the funds raised to travel -- but for our kids, that's all the more incentive to go get us some new sponsors each year. The parents being required to come to meetings and spend time with us increases their engagement with the program as well, which has brought us some really awesome support.

Hope that helps!