Criteria for Allowing New Team Members

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To be admitted onto the team, students must achieve the following:
• Attend a minimum of 8 of 10 scheduled training meetings during the Fall.
o Meetings in the fall are typically held after school every Friday from 3 to 6PM during the months of August through December. Schedule conflicts that result in missed hours due to sports, family functions, etc must be pre-approved by the lead teacher advisor.
• Commit to attend a minimum of 180 hours participating in FIRST Robotics activities during the 2014-15 school year, outside of normal school hours.
o Meetings are typically scheduled during January and February for Saturdays 9AM to 6PM, Sundays 1PM to 6PM, Mondays and Thursday 3PM to 6PM, and Fridays 3PM to 9PM. School holidays typically are full day robotics meetings.
• Demonstrate tangible and/or verifiable results of time and efforts spent during the fall training meetings.
• Commit to attend at least one off-season competition in the Fall of 2014 and at least one regional competition during the month of March 2015*
• Maintain a C-minimum grade and satisfactory or better citizenship mark in all classes at the quarter, 15-week, and semester grade reporting periods.
o Students are to notify the lead teacher advisor at any instance of low grades in any class.
• Complete regular school work as is expected of all students.
• Actively participate in team communications and check e-mail at least once daily.
• Act with gracious professionalism during team meetings and activities, and be responsible with and respectful of all team and school property.
• Participate in lab cleanup and program growth efforts.
• Be willing to participate in community service mentoring activities at Dunsmore, Lincoln, La Crescenta, or Keppel elementary schools.
• Show a genuine interest in being a dedicated member of the team, for both personal enrichment and collaborative advancement of Team 696 as an organization.
• Meet or exceed the minimum fund-raising requirement expected of all team members*. This requirement varies annually and will be announced in the fall.

*Note: As a school-sponsored activity, there are never any costs charged to individual students to participate in any aspect of the program that is required for credit, grades, or minimum participation requirements. Optional events and activities may incur costs such as lodging and transportation. Participation or lack thereof in optional events and activities will not affect a students’ eligibility for the team or class credit earned.

Grounds for disqualification and removal from the team include but are not limited to:
• Being off task during meeting and work times (video games, toys/puzzles, chatting, etc).
• Not following mentor directions or instructions
• Distracting or students and/or mentors from work
• Disregarding safety
• Unauthorized tampering with equipment including but not limited to computer resources
• Unprofessional behavior or causing disruptions of any sort
• Disrespect of fellow students and/or team mentors
• Grades below C in any class at any grade reporting period except the 5-week reporting period.
• Lack of attendance
• Recommendation for removal from the team by class teachers.

Students may be removed from the team for any of the above reasons at any time, after discussion between team mentors and ultimate decision of Mr. Black. Students removed due to poor grades may be granted re-admittance if teacher(s) indicates the grade(s) have improved.
Approximately in December, a definitive list will be published indicating which students have been accepted to the team for the 2014-2015 season. Members who are ultimately not accepted to the team for the 2014-2015 season are invited to re-apply for the 2015-2016 season.