[Drake]

We had the same problem at our school for the last 4 years. People would only attend lunch meetings and then claim to be a member. When it was time to get permission slips, shirts, etc.. They would all of a sudden argue and complain about why they should deserve shirts. Then, it was the event they, and they would show up two or three hours late, the school is 30 minutes WALKING from the Silicon Valley Regional and a bus runs directly between our school and San Jose State University, and then they would leave after lunch. The next day, if they came back, they would complain about why we aren't rank as high as when they left, even though they did not do anything, that day or before.

So this year our head mentor is very busy, we weren't even going to have a team since we had funding issues and he had a lot of duties in our school district. So, the day we come back from winter break I see our mentor in the hallway and he tells me to show up on Wednesday to discuss who was going to the kickoff, since the person who started us on FIRST was able to get us a grant for FIRST.

So we show up on Wednesday and he tells us that this year he won't be as involved as before, by the way this didn't last, in fact he probably spent more this year. So, he tells us that he wants to keep track of how long each of us works. Traditionally we did not show up until the last 2 or 3 weeks, but a few members, us hardcore members, started showing up. After a week of watching me come in, I totaled about 120 hours this year(the previous record on the team was my 50+ hours a few years ago), spend most of my weekends, and some times in between the week, the mentor decided that this year we would have a minimum hour requirement, along with safety tests, and a good knowledge of game rules(in form of asking questions and a 50 question quiz). If you did not meet these requirements you would not be considered a member, would not get a permission slip to get out, and would be shunned by everyone on the team. Over 40 people showed up to meetings(over all of the meetings), and only 24-27(some are border line) students actually got the hours. our entire roster runs at 34, with 4 alumni mentors, 2 school mentors, and an engineer from United Defense.

The minimum was 15 hours, obviously some spent more time than others, and those are the ones that are going to be the pit/driver team. 7 of us, aside from the mentors. I myself for putting in the most hours got the driver positions.

We have unofficially allowed about 4 students who are borderline to go to the event, on the condition that the finish the last hour requirements before next week(3/24-26). We ordered their shirts, but if they don't complete their part, we will take their shirts and give them to the two or three sponsors we have.

A zero tolerance policy works very well. I personally hound the kids to do work, or else I go off and vent steam where they can hear me.