FAHA: No effort and all the benefit?

[Chris Fultz]

After a problem a few years ago when a student said he was always there, and the menors said no you weren't - we started recording attendance. Students must sign in and out. Students are required to meet a minimum number of nights, and a minimum number of hours on those nights (you can't show up, sign in and leave). Students can get bonus attendance points for working the unscheduled times during the final weeks of build.

If a student is not contributing, we deal with that as it is happening instead of waiting until travel time to bring it up.

Students must also meet school requirements to stay on the team and to travel with the team. All students are required to have a signed form from teachers stating that it is acceptable for them to miss xx days and that their academic work is good.

We even give an attendance award at our team awards night.
Have a written policy, and enforce it.

And, to the other part of your question - a lot of good scouting goes on during Thursday. You need to begin to identify who can do what so that you are ready for your first match on Friday. Scouting information will change during matches Friday and Saturday as teams break or get fixed and improve, but you have to be ready in case you are match #1 on Friday.

[KenWittlief]

another thing to consider- if a student hasnt been showing up at the meetings, when he was able to -did not show an interest in spending time with the team

then what do you think he will do at the event? think he will suddenly want to be with the team for 72 hours straight

or will he be off somewhere on his own, doing who knows what?

[Bharat Nain]

If I were you, with a very kind and sympathetic heart, I would answer the following questions, and then see if he should go:

1) Since he has not contributed much in the past, is he really willing to do so now?
2) Is he doing well academically?
3) Does he show a good attitude in the present meetings towards work and other team members?
4) Does he look promising to do some hard work in the future?
5) In your opinion, what would you do if you were him and he were you?(Take this into slight consideration, but NEVER base your final decision on this)

Ask questions as such, and you shall find you answer somewhere along...

[R2K2D2]

This is a very common problem with FIRST teams, I know our team has faced the same issue in previous years. What we have done is created a student handbook, and in this handbook are all the requirements that students must meet as participants on this team. This directly correlates to attendance at competitions. As Chris said earlier, competitions are a reward for the hard work and effort. The first major requirement is a grade requirement. The student has to be getting a minimum of a certain set GPA with certain set grades for classes taken that semester. A special progress report is taken by each student to their teachers and filled out and turned in. Then, the next requirement is attendance. The Technical Applications Team has created an on-line attendance program that monitors when students were working, for how long, and what they did. This gives the team direct evidence when having to make an attendance decision. If a student forgets to sign in, their loss, it is their responsibility to remember and follow through with it.

If I were you present your evidence to this student and their parents, and make a decision from there. I don't feel that I can tell a student no unless I have a proven/documented reason why they shouldn't. This is why the attendance monitoring system is important.

[sanddrag]

Just a couple of side notes. One, school isn't everything. While several people with low grades and GPAs and who are failing courses may not be deserving of a spot on the robotics team, there are a few that are very talented in other areas than academics. Robotics may be the key to opening them up to a whole new world. A slight bit, this ties in with my point number two. There was a spotlight on here (I think by M. Krass) that went "think not of what the student does for the team but what the team can do for the student" At the Phoenix regional, that guy from Microchip said something I will never forget, "FIRST is about making you all become more productive citizens" If that student with D's and F's is never given that chance to shine, perhaps they never will. One may say that "so what, this failing student had the same opportunity in school as everyone else who is passing" but one needs to remember that different people excel in different areas. It is impossible to custom tailer schooling to each student but trying at least a little certainly doesn't hurt anything. Nobody is good at everything, and everyone isn't good at the same thing. Besides, FIRST has an "I" for Inspiration not an "E" for Elitism. The student mentioned here seems like he just needs to be Inspired.

I sincerely apologize if I have gotten a bit off topic but you know when the fingers go a typin'...