Does your team charge a fee to join?

[AdamHeard]

973 has a grey area here.

Students are responsible for their total cost, but most fundraise this. Some parents choose to pay it so their student has to spend less time fundraising.

The team has lots of methods to help kids fundraise; raffles, events they can work, pamphlets to help going door to door or mailing, etc... Most kids end up making $10-100/hr through our fundraising methods.

We've never have a student unable to go because of finances, we always make things work.

I believe it's important that free rides don't exist, it's a very valuable lesson. That being said, it doesn't have to be a financial cost (it can be work instead).

The lessons learned through fundraising are just as valuable as the technical ones. Some students are great technically but are terrified of talking to people, and fundraising can really help get some kids out of their shell.

If we were to sort the kids in order of how much they've learned (which is something we'd NEVER do), even the lowest ranking kid would feel like they accomplished something. Just being on our team and traveling to events means a great deal of work has been done.

[BrendanB]

We do not charge a fee but I know of a few teams in our area who do charge a yearly fee. From what I've heard, most teams who charge a large entry fee ($100+) also cover a few team shirts as well as their travel costs.

Currently all of our students pay for their travel costs (hotel, airfare/bus/van, food, etc) along with team apparel. It adds up to a lot each season by the time its done (roughly $1000+ per year for 5 events). This year we are attempting more personal fundraising efforts in which the first few items they sell goes directly to the team and any number above that a 50% will go into the student's travel fund in the future.

We've never had a student unable to attend an event due to travel costs as we always find ways to cover expenses.

Long term we hope to expand our corporate and personal fundraisers to help cover portions or all of our team travel and take the burden off of families when we travel.

Our team is currently moving under the 4-H umbrella which will allow us to have team dues but we won't open that door until we have sustained fundraisers that cover all student travel costs. Eventually I would like to see us charge $xyz at the beginning of the year which gives students x number of team shirts/polo/other apparrel, cover their 4-H fees, & the small remainder goes to travel and that's all they pay for the year using our fundraising methods to cover the rest in addition to working hard to bring our travel costs down.

[cbale2000]

Years ago when our team was a bit bigger and before FiM reduced the cost of travel so drastically we had students pay their own travel costs but those costs could be offset by participation in a fundraiser or by meeting attendance.

Our sponsor liaison mentor had arranged that the team would keep track of each members hours, and based on the hours a member put in, our sponsor would offset the cost of travel for that member. This meant that a team member who put in like 150+ hours essentially got to travel free of charge, and acted as a good incentive to get students to show up and participate.


Since the implementation of the FiM District structure, travel costs have dropped substantially and our team has gotten smaller to the point where the team simply covers the cost to rent Vans and buy lunch for everyone (Students just pay for Breakfast/Dinner and any snacks).
As an example of the cost difference, this year was the first time in 4 years our team had to pay for hotel rooms because all the other events we attended were close enough to commute to every day, even then the team covered the cost because of how much we had saved up to attend states (and then didn't qualify).

[jwallace15]

We charge $200 each year for every student on the team. That team member is also required to raise another $200 by conducting some sort of fundraiser designed by them. Any sponsor they get can also go towards that $200 fundraiser. Some students also choose to use a sponsorship or fundraiser to cover their participation fee, and some students choose to pay the $200 they are required to fundraise. The initial $200 (dubbed the Participation Fee) goes towards the team (for uniforms, transportation, and other team dealings). The student-executed fundraiser is refunded to the team member in the form of a scholarship given their senior year. This scholarship goes up by $250 every year the student is on the team. You have to graduate on the team to receive the scholarship.

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by Billfred

Our expectation for this year is that every FRC student brings on or retains one sponsor

That said, it does not have a big sponsor to satisfy the requirement. Getting the funding is important, but it also means our kids will have to be able to talk effectively about the team and what we're trying to achieve. Sneaky, no?

Those are pretty much same reasons we run a very similar program on my team. Instead of "dues" we run a program where each student is expected to bring in $200 to the team through whatever means are easiest to them. They can cut a check to the team if they like, which immediately helps the team. But they can also use profits made from the fundraisers we run (selling cookie dough, light bulbs, etc.) to build up that $200.

We also directly assign a minimum of two area businesses to each student and require that they visit these businesses to present about our team and request funding. The business visits are probably the biggest way individual students contribute to the team. These alone accounted for around 10% of our budget last year.

This method offers a good compromise for people who are turned off by a fee, and the need to bring money into a team. And it being a "requirement" only really means that students have to do it in order to participate in activities like Kick-Off or Competition. If a student fails to bring in $200 we aren't going to be kicking anyone off of the team.

[allgoodthehood]

We charge a $350 fee after we get new team members in October. But, the fee is for travailing and competition costs. So, I don't know if you would count this as and "entrance fee" but we do charge something. We also charge another $300 if we qualify for worlds.

[Allison K]

We are charging $50ish to cover uniforms, plus any travel costs incurred (bus, plane, hotel, food). We are fortunate to have eight districts and the state championship within 50 miles, so we don't start incurring travel costs until World level. Parent-power (carpooling) gets us where we need to be for most events so buses and other such expenses are a non-issue.

I plan to be proactive about making sure students aren't swayed by an inability to pay by submitting our student roster to the counseling office and asking if they can cross reference our roster with the list of students receiving free/reduced price lunch. I don't have a particular plan of action if there are any, but I imagine we can come up with a solution that eliminates or reduces their financial burden and saves face.

The poll I would be more interested in seeing results from is "How much does the average student on your team pay out of pocket to get your full team experience (i.e. - they attend all competition events) in A) a year when you do go to worlds and B) a year when you don't go to worlds." That would negate differences based upon what is and isn't included in the participation fee.

[FrankJ]

Not really suggesting anything about dues or joining fees. But FRC is an expensive sport.
$5000 for your veteran robot to go to one regional (two district).
About $.50 to $1.00 a mile to transport your pit & robot to a competition.
$300 to $600 /person to transport, house & feed you team per event. Somewhat less if you don't have to use hotels. Somewhat more if you use airplanes.
This does not include build costs for the robot or tee shirts & uniforms, pay for the teachers, coaches, mentors. The costs get absorbed in various ways (including supportive parents carpooling), but they are real just the same.

[Tyler Olds]

Wave Robotics charges a $100 registration fee to join the program. Here's the breakdown:

$20 to the Recreation Department for administrative fees
$20 for team shirts (typically three t-shirts)
$60 for expenses related to student activities that we pool an account for. This includes if we need to buy a dinner for a night that a parent missed bringing dinner, buying bottled water/beverages for the team during build season, end of the year party, etc...

If a student qualifies for free and reduced, that student pays $50 and the Recreation department still takes $20 so we receive only $30 per student.

We also require students to cover their travel expenses as corporate funding (we do not receive funds from our school district) cannot be used to supplement travel through our 501c3 account. We provide team fundraising activities that go to offset total cost of travel for everyone and have individual fundraising accounts for students to offset their own travel costs.

[FrankJ]

The stipulations the donor puts on funds can control what they are used for. Being a 501-C by itself doesn't stop you from using funds to offset travel. You have to be careful how you give individual preference including scholarships & you have to following the bylaws of you corporation though.

[Kevin Leonard]

Team 20 unfortunately runs about $400 per student as a fee to join the team. This includes a team shirt, a team jersey, and one of our two regionals.

There are reasons behind this monstrous fee in team history, but if you want to know more about that, you can PM me.

Most of the money goes to travel expenses to transport our 100+ student team to the events.

No student would ever be turned away from the team or not allowed to go to an event because of financial reasons, however, so it's not quite as horrible as it sounds.

But as a Freshman, convincing my parents to take on even part of that cost was difficult.

[M.Kong-Sivert]

I was told that, in the Phoenix Union High School District, where I go to school, every club has to have some sort of membership fee, but the amount is up to the club itself. We usually charge enough to cover the team shirts, bandana, and goggles or side protectors that everyone would need to buy anyway. We make sure to tell the team to talk to one of the coaches if the fee is going to cause a problem, but I don't know that it ever has.

[M.Kong-Sivert]

One thing we've been trying to do is to make each member of the team responsible for helping the team procure a certain amount of money. This could be through tax credits, grant applications, sponsorships, or whatever else they come up with, but they don't pay the money themselves.

[ChuckDickerson]

456 is a community based team. We have students from public, private, and homeschools on our team. We charge a $200 activity/membership fee plus a travel fee per trip. The activity/membership fee gets team shirts and goes to offset some of the other expenses like robot parts and materials. The travel fees depend on the costs of the trip and offset some of the hotel costs. The travel fee is usually like $50 or $100. We find that having fees are actually a benefit because we attract students that really want to be on the team not just kids that want to hang out and have fun and play games on their phone. They have “skin in the game”. Likewise, parents expect value for their dollar and want their kids involved and being productive. It seems everything students do these days costs lots of money now whether it is band, cheerleading, football, or whatever. Parents consistently tell us that FIRST robotics is the most worthwhile activity their kids are involved in and they feel it is an outstanding value for their investment. We do have policies in place as well to handle situations where students want to be on 456 but cannot afford it. No student will ever be denied the opportunity to be a member of 456 and/or travel with the team for financial reasons.

[Tyler Olds]

Originally Posted by FrankJ

The stipulations the donor puts on funds can control what they are used for. Being a 501-C by itself doesn't stop you from using funds to offset travel. You have to be careful how you give individual preference including scholarships & you have to following the bylaws of you corporation though.

You are correct it is a bylaw of our community foundation that we have our 501c3 through.