"Robotics" Team or Club

[Mirza95vx]

Hey i searched before i was going to post this but i could not find anything on the weather or not the robotics team is considered a team or a club at everyones school.

I know that some teams have received funding from their school and i wanted to know if the school treated us as a club or a actual team. Like a basketball or football team.

The reason I'm asking is our school has not been very generous in donating to our team. Well at least our school board hasn't. They only provide help to team activities and i was wondering what some robotics teams that are considered a team at their schools had to go through to get funding for the team and if it was hard becoming a team instead of a club.

[Koko Ed]

Far as I know the X-Cats are regaurded as a team.

[Mirza95vx]

Do you know specifically what they had to go through to be considered a team?

[Mike]

We're still considered a club.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Mirza95vx

Do you know specifically what they had to go through to be considered a team?

Far as I can tell, that's how the school reguards them (at least that's what my wife, who is a teacher at Wilson).

[BoyWithCape195]

We are only a "club". This makes it so that the BOE can give tons of money to the sports "teams" for equipment, and make us go find all our own money. Our BOE would rather give each football player a new set of pads every time the UPS truck comes (sarcastic to prove a point) then to help kids excel in math and science.....I guess.....

[Rosiebotboss]

Originally Posted by BoyWithCape195

We are only a "club". This makes it so that the BOE can give tons of money to the sports "teams" for equipment, and make us go find all our own money. Our BOE would rather give each football player a new set of pads every time the UPS truck comes (sarcastic to prove a point) then to help kids excel in math and science.....I guess.....

Team or club... In Massachusetts it makes a difference.

Sports teams are governed under a completely different set of rules. Sports come under the MIAA, Mass Interscholastic Athletic Assn., a statewide governing body. Funding is seperate from scholastics and has certain minimums. Schools have to hire a coach, have to supply minimum amt. of equipment, etc. I admit, I do not know all the rules regarding sports. But as a club, the HS does not have to supply funding except a stipend for the Staff Advisor.

We did put in for a line item in FY2006 budget to cover registration for next year. It got cut for reasons I will not get into publicly. But Rosie found a friend on the School Board and the $6k is restored.

My point is, keep plugging away. You have seen our pit displays. It took a LOT of work to do what we have done. Put robotics in the High School cirriculum, get a patent for an invention, keep kids in school and turn on female students to engineering. That' s how we did it. Do the right things and you will get the recognition and the funding.

[shyra1353]

I don't know if our school considers us a team or a club because it doesn't really make a difference in terms of funding.

However, last year on my old team, we received a great deal of funding by the school. And by great deal, I mean registration fee less $2000 (CDN). In order to obtain this though, I presented a business proposal explaining our team, what we did, what we needed the money for, how we planned to pay it back, etc. It turned out we paid back some of the money, but not all of it, which was okay with the principal as this had been a topic of discussion earlier.

I know this probably won't help you in becoming a team instead of a club, but if you would like to take a look at the proposal, email or pm me and I would be happy to find a soft copy of it somewhere to email to you.

Hope this helps

-- Shyra

[xzvrw2]

i consider it robotics teams. i say that because every has to team together to make that robot and everything else (chairmans and scouting) work.

[Mirza95vx]

Originally posted by rees2001

340 is both a club and a team. For the "off-season" months we meet weekly as a club after school & sometimes on weekends. During the season & at competitions we are a team. What does this really mean, nothing. Our school does not put much emphasis on team letters or jackets.The school gives us work space, and freedom & support to do what we do.
2 years ago they built a MST (math, science, technology) wing on the school that is really just Tech & Robotics.
Currently the school pays 2 teachers to run the team. Next year & beyond it will be 3 teachers.
We have been recognized at sports pep rallies.
Our team has gotten more press in the school news letters and on the school website than any sports teams.
They host our team web site.
Our students get internship credit for their hours.
Our students are excused from classes to attend competitions.
In tough times the school has given us money(when we had no corporate sponsor or little sponsorship).
In good times we would never ask.
We don't try to go to multiple Regionals + Championship, we don't believe that is the point of the team.
When we need the school they support us, when we don't need them they support us even more.
These are tough times for education budgets, we believe it is better to just not ask unless we need to.
Over the past 6 years we have built a successful relationship with our school district.

I have left out a ton of what goes on around here I just don't have the time.

Thats great someone mentioned to me that you guys were one of the teams from the Rochester area that is considered a team. This is our rookie year so we don't have much of a relationship with our School Board.

Do you by any chance know how you guys became a team and what process you had to go through to be recognized as a team.

[Lisa Rodriguez]

Rockville High School=club
East Hartford High School=team...i believe
Manchester=hasn't been considered yet (we only have 2....3? members from that school)
RHAM= only 1 member, no clue
Tolland=Team, i believe, although we only have 3 member, there is a large interest for next year (w00t rookie teams!)

we're trying to get it changed to team for Rockville, although it's rather hard...we're also trying to see if we can get varsity letters for robotics....that'd be fun

[OZ_341]

Our school officially lists us as a "Club", but we get treated like a "Team".

One point I would make is that all of these things listed below did not happen by MAGIC. We had to fight for each one over the course of 6 years.

We won the items below by acting as a team when others try to categorize us as a club.

Don't give up!!! Fight for what you deserve!!

Team 341 has:

1) The Gym for Ramp Riot (our off-season comp.)
2) We get excused from school for Robotics
3) School letter after 2 years of service
4) Full bus service year-round
5) $6K budget
6) 1 Coach and 2 assistant coach co-curricular salaries
7) Use of shop area (we bought the equipment)
8) Invitations to present to board at least twice a year
9) Time off to visit elementary classrooms
10) Robotics listed on kids transcripts
11) Robotics Course offered every other year

And probably a few others that I am not thinking of.

But the trick is that we never act satisfied. Just like Dean, we always ask for more respect, time, and $.

Robotics Deserves it!!

[unapiedra]

Team 1110 is a team, but this doesn't say anything about how much money we receive.

We don't get any money from the school, however our school's football team also got under $500. So team or club wouldn't make much of a difference moneywise.

[nightrenegade00]

Personally i think that at our school it is a varsity sport. 1 - we recieve a varsity letter and jacket over the four years we are involved with the team similar to how varsity sports distributes letters and jackets. 2 - when you r asked to fill out medical cards im pretty sure your considered a team.

-Crash

[Yan Wang]

The club part of the team includes anyone and everyone who wants to join and help out in the school. The team is limited to roughly 25 students who travel to regionals. The team is more of a community project while the club is to get high school students interested.