For this season, 1618 will be meeting three days during the week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday) after school, and Saturdays. To qualify to travel to Chesapeake, our sole regional this year, students have to make a percentage of both sets of meetings (the exact figures escape me; I think it's around 60%), and chip in $100 towards the trip (which, we hope, will be offset at least partially by fundraising events).
We're going great lengths to make the kids and their parents aware of the requirements this year, as a little less awareness last season left us with seven kids that traveled to Palmetto. The addition of a travel money requirement also necessitates more awareness, since the team hasn't needed it before (compare our
2007 travel to our
2008 travel).