[David Brinza]

Originally Posted by richardmcc2

Last year was our teams rookie year, our team was based out of one high school, but we had one or two students from a neighboring high school. This neighboring high school, has started their own team this year. Is there any rule against having students from this other school on our team?

I know this is against the rules for the BEST Robotics Competition, but I wasn't sure about FIRST.

I think some of the responses in this thread have drifted from answering the question in the body of the message (which is bit different than the thread title). The issue isn't about having students from more than one school on a FIRST team. There are many, very good (and successful) examples of multi-school teams in FIRST. Team 980 is built this way: we're an alliance of small academies and home-schooled students plus students from high schools without FIRST teams. We actively engage in collaborative efforts (Team 4 in 2006 and just starting with Team 2404), just as other successful FIRST teams have done (Niagara Triplets or RAWC+CheesyPoofs, anyone?).

I believe we now have a situation on our team similar to what richardmcc2 is trying to resolve:
A third-year student member of Team 980 attends a local high school that forms a rookie team this year. Is this student morally or "legally" obligated to leave Team 980 to join his high school's rookie team? Should this be or is this a choice to be made by the student? Team 980 does not "recruit" students from schools with existing teams, but this is a new situation for us. BTW, the student's HS rookie team indicates that they are not looking to be mentored ("SoCal Triplets" are not in the cards here...).

What about the rookie status of the new team if the experienced Team 980 student joins that team?
According to the published FIRST criteria, a single student with FIRST experience particitation on that team won't affect the rookie status for the team. However, if there were five or more experienced students on the new team, then rookie status would be affected.

I'm starting to think like a lawyer here - time to stop...