[ChuckDickerson]

456 is a community based team. We have students from public, private, and homeschools on our team. We charge a $200 activity/membership fee plus a travel fee per trip. The activity/membership fee gets team shirts and goes to offset some of the other expenses like robot parts and materials. The travel fees depend on the costs of the trip and offset some of the hotel costs. The travel fee is usually like $50 or $100. We find that having fees are actually a benefit because we attract students that really want to be on the team not just kids that want to hang out and have fun and play games on their phone. They have “skin in the game”. Likewise, parents expect value for their dollar and want their kids involved and being productive. It seems everything students do these days costs lots of money now whether it is band, cheerleading, football, or whatever. Parents consistently tell us that FIRST robotics is the most worthwhile activity their kids are involved in and they feel it is an outstanding value for their investment. We do have policies in place as well to handle situations where students want to be on 456 but cannot afford it. No student will ever be denied the opportunity to be a member of 456 and/or travel with the team for financial reasons.