Varsity Letters?

[Jon Stratis]

Our lettering requirements:

1. Participate in 12 hours per week of scheduled team sessions during the build season (80% of scheduled team meeting hours)
2. Participate for 2 years on the team
3. Attend team competitions:
- Two FRC competitions (3 days each) OR
- One FRC competition (3 Days) and two mini competitions (1 day each)
4. Meet all expectations on the student list, as outlined in the robotics team handbook
5. Full attendance for all mandatory meetings
- Kickoff in January
- Open House in mid-February
- Fall recruiting information meeting in September
6. Distinguish yourself as a leader
- For example: Captain, website coordinator, animation director, main photographer/videographer, sub-team captain, secretary, scouting captain, drive team
7. Participate in 1 from each section below:
A. Outreach:
- Spreading the word event (State Fair, School STEM Day, SMM Science day, mentoring)
- Fundraising event
B. Training
- Attend the summer camp
- Attend the fall meetings
- Complete a special mentor-directed project

We see lettering as recognition that a student is not only participating on the team, but helping the team to achieve its objectives and to improve. Each of the 7 requirements ensures that a student is active in a different part of the team:

1. Actually shows up to most meetings. We've found that it's obvious when a student shows up to less than 80% of the build meetings - they aren't as involved and don't take nearly as much ownership of the project. They're basically just a warm body that can follow instructions, not someone who can design or lead a group.

2. With very rare exceptions, the first year someone is on a team they spend most of the time learning. In order to ensure team continuity and success, we need students who have been there multiple years and are capable of leading and designing a robot.

3. Everyone should want to attend the competitions. That said, there is a certain minimum we need at each competition to be successful - 7 scouting, 4 driving, and 4 on the pit crew. That's most of our team. Further, the competitions serve as great inspiration for the students.

4. The student list includes the basic expectations of all students - showing up on time, being dressed appropriately, behaving properly, etc.

5. We identified 3 meetings as being critical for the program, outside of competitions. Kickoff is obviously one of the biggest days of the year, and sets the direction for the entire build season. Our open house is a pretty big event (We really should count attendance... it wouldn't surprise me if we get over 100 visitors in the couple of hours we have it) and is important to show family, friends, sponsors and the community how the team works. The fall recruiting meeting is also extremely critical, as it's our main source of new students.

6. Showing some degree of leadership is a critical developmental step for all students. Generally speaking, we can always find some way for a student to demonstrate leadership and growth, and we try to put those opportunities out there for the students, and actively push them into leadership roles where they can succeed. I don't think we've ever had a student fail this point.

7. For Part A, community outreach is obviously very important (Chairmans!). We have students that attend every event we do, but we want to make sure we have enough students to make each event a success. For part B, we want to make sure that the students are developing new skills in the off season and actively working to get ready for the build season. Just showing up at kickoff is great, but it also puts more work on everyone as that student then needs to be trained. Attending the summer and fall sessions gives students a chance to learn new skills they can use in the build season. Mentor-directed projects is also an option for students who are involved in other off season activities and can't make the meeting times. Typically, those projects are designed to be something they can work on at home that will help both the student and the team, and give the student something to present to increase everyone's knowledge.

Of the 10 students eligible to letter per requirement 2 (aka the non-rookie members), we only had 2 that failed to letter this past year, both due to attendance (requirement 1). All 10 of them fulfilled every other requirement.


Make the lettering requirements something that is meaningful not just to the individual student's personal growth, but to the team growth as well.