Letterman's Jacket Letter

[tipsmiller]

My school, Poudre High, in Fort Collins, CO, does letters. It is at the discretion of our teacher, and most students don't earn them until junior year if they get one. We've been doing it for quite a while!

[Moros]

Last year (rookie season) we gave all 24 team members an academic letter. Our original criteria for the letter was putting in at least 100 hours, but people on the team put in anywhere from 140 to 200 hours. Since there were only 24 people building a scoring robot with minibot, as rookies, almost all of the hours put in were working hours.

We havn't yet thought out this year's criteria, but it will probably have something to do with how much you contributed to the team rather than hours put in due to the number of team members we now have.

By the way, we are in the central coast area of California. I don't know if us lettering in robotics sets a precedent in the state, but I doubt it.

[KeatonM]

Our school counts FIRST as a varsity "activity," therefore we all receive a letter at the end of our first year. I believe our district requires a certain amount of time dedicated to the team, which our members fulfill in one year.

Oh, I supposed I should mention that we are located in Michigan, if anyone is curious.

[Jon Stratis]

Here are our lettering requirements (we set them up after our second year):

1) Participate in 12 hours per week of scheduled team sessions during the build season. (out of ~16 build hours per week)
2) Participate for two years on the team.
3) Attend team competitions.

a. Two FRC competitions (3 days each) OR
b. One FRC competition and two mini competitions (1 day each)

4) Meet all expectations on the student list. (Outlined on pg. 6 of handbook)
5) Full attendance at all mandatory meetings.

a. Challenge Kickoff
b. Open House
c. Fall recruiting information meeting
d. Team service project

6) Distinguish yourself as a leader.

a. Captain(s)
b. Sub-team Captain
c. Secretary
d. Drive Team
e. Website Coordinator
f. Animation Director
g. Main Photographer / Video-photographer
h. AutoCAD Specialist

7) Participate in 1 from each section below:

a. Publicity Projects

• Participate in ‘spreading the word’ event (i.e. State Fair, STEM Day, SMM Science Day, Mentoring, News and Radio programs)
• Participate in a fund raising event.

b. Meeting Oriented Projects

• Attend summer meetings
• Complete special mentor directed project.
• Attend fall meetings.

The basic idea behind this is that we want to see dedication from the team members, and effort to help the team improve year over year. As a mentor, it's usually pretty obvious who should get letters and who shouldn't at the end of each season. There have only been a few students we've had to look at the rules to figure out if they actually earned a letter.