Does your team charge a fee to join?

[sanddrag]

In this thread, I'm a little bit surprised by the number of teams that have such requirements which seem to (perhaps not deliberately) exclude less fortunate students. What a luxury it must be (for the teams) to be able to charge a fee for participation, but what an unfortunate circumstance it would be for that really bright kid who does not come from a family of wealth, and whose family does not have $200 or even $20 to spend for him or her to join.

Perhaps things are just different outside of California...

[mrnoble]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

In this thread, I'm a little bit surprised by the number of teams that have such requirements which seem to (perhaps not deliberately) exclude less fortunate students. What a luxury it must be (for the teams) to be able to charge a fee for participation, but what an unfortunate circumstance it would be for that really bright kid who does not come from a family of wealth, and whose family does not have $200 or even $20 to spend for him or her to join.

Perhaps things are just different outside of California...

There's always more to the story. Our school has a foundation that pays for everything from books and AP test fees to project and travel costs for students that lack means; students can contract to work at a rate of $10/hr for the school (usually helping teachers out in the classroom), with the "money" coming in the form of paid fees. I also have years of experience that tell me kids treat free stuff with less respect than things in which they have invested, so regardless of the means each student has, it's good for them to have some literal buy in, I think. And I have had students on my team who ranged from homeless to wealthy.

[MrBasse]

We have never charged a fee to be on the team. Students must set a goal for fundraising and if they meet that goal they get their shirts for free. If the whole team meets the goal set by mentors then travel is paid for as far as we can. Last year we were able to pay for half of everyones hotel costs as well as mileage for parents that provided rides.

Our typical goal is $500 per student, but we have never really had more than 15 active members when build season rolls around. But if we get that plus whatever our mentors beg and borrow, we typically do okay.

[Taylor]

If a student wishes to travel with the team to official FIRST events, he/she must raise at least $250 in sponsorships. While we encourage these sponsorships to be with area businesses, on occasion they're financed by the families or the students themselves.
We also work with the students throughout the year, training them on proper tactics, partner rookies with veteran students, and utilize the Fundraising Toolkit.

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

In this thread, I'm a little bit surprised by the number of teams that have such requirements which seem to (perhaps not deliberately) exclude less fortunate students. What a luxury it must be (for the teams) to be able to charge a fee for participation, but what an unfortunate circumstance it would be for that really bright kid who does not come from a family of wealth, and whose family does not have $200 or even $20 to spend for him or her to join.

Perhaps things are just different outside of California...

I think others have said this earlier in the thread, but our experience echoes the same: If there is a kid who wants to join our team but cannot, for some reason, pay the money - we work it out. We would never, ever, deny a student for their inability to pay if they truly want to be there. As an example, in our case, maybe the student creates the equivalent of the fee by putting in more outreach hours than the handbook requires or by bringing in a new sponsor.

But with almost 200 students clamoring to join our program, the fee is (1) a way to help cover our district travel and (2) a way of weeding out the kids who just want it on their resume but don't actually want to engage with the program.

[Koko Ed]

The only fee our team charges is for your heart and soul. No refunds.

[GarrettF2395]

As a primarily homeschool team, we charge a participation fee of $50 per family. This encourages siblings to participate without additional cost, which we've found to be a decent recruiting method.
This fee doesn't cover required student expenses like travel or T-shirt cost.

We had discussed moving to a $250 fee, but none of our leadership team had time this summer to schedule and attend fundraisers to help our students raise the money, which was a necessity in my opinion.

So we'll work on it for next season.

[pyroslev]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

The only fee our team charges is for your heart and soul. No refunds.

You forgot sanity.

[Bochek]

We have a $350 fee per student to cover Shirts, Hotels and Travel costs. There are provisions in place for families that can not afford the fee.

[GKrotkov]

How appropriate that this thread pops up, I was came from a Dawgma meeting where we discussed the implementation of these fees for the first time. We're intending them to about ~20$, taken at the beginning of (or around then) build season. The delay until build season is giving people a chance to see if they actually want to commit to our team, also, it's low enough that people shouldn't have too much of a problem paying the fee. We haven't discussed ways to mitigate the fee, but now that I'm reading this thread, I'll have to bring this up next meeting. Perhaps we can waive the fee if you've gotten fundraising or some sort of sponsorship?

Thanks, Chief Delphi!