Bringing a member from another team to competition

[Bill Moore]

Originally Posted by Dave Campbell

If all teams look around in their communities, I'm sure you'll find "homeless" FIRST'ers both student and mentors.

This idea is the basis of MOE. We will accept any high school student who does not currently have a team in their school. After the Championships, we will make presentations to as many high schools as possible and try to get them to start new FRC teams. Once a team is formed, we will not accept new students from that school; we want their talents and capabilities to help develop their school team into a strong member of FIRST.

One home-schooled student a couple years ago drove 2.5 hours to attend our meetings. The local school policy where he lived limited team membership to students enrolled in that specific school. Not necessarily a bad decision, but one that we don't have to deal with since there is no BOE setting our policy.

All students should have the opportunity to participate in FIRST, if they are willing to accept the responsibilities that go along with being part of a team.

[the_short1]

we got 2 members of (547) + 2 of their family members to come to cheer for us.. and join the celebrations.. they made it to champs most years.. but this year they didn't..

they are the tenesee team

[KathieK]

We were joking before Atlanta that RAGE was having a sleepover party! We had Dez ride down with us on the bus to Chespeake and he stayed with us in the hotel; he met up with us in the Chicago airport and flew the rest of the way to Champs with us, as did Cory; and we had Dez stay with us in Atlanta and offered to have two others stay with us as well; and we accomodated a FIRST Senior Mentor who needed a room for one night. We had one of our own mentors arrive early; four team members flying on different flights and days; another mentor arriving the next day. I make up a spreadsheet (attendance sheet) for every day anyway, so we just added the appropriate names to the days so we knew we had everyone we were supposed to have when we boarded the bus!

[katiyeh07]

This year, and last year, Mr.Henry and his son (last year) and his wife(this year) from Rosie Robotics drove our tuck all the way down to Atlanta. Which was really nice again (thank you so much once again), they stayed with our team, becuase their team didn't go to Atlanta.

[Amanda Aldridge]

My freshman year in HS I wasn't on the team for a couple of reasons A) I had soooo many other things going on, and B) at that time, word about the team was mainly spread by former/returning team members from each HS (4 HS team) and there was only one from my school, so I didn't really know that much about it.

Anyway, my mom worked in the office at the BOE that supervised Hammond's FIRST team and she dragged me out of bed one Saturday morning (much to my dismay, might I add!) to drive up to Evanston to see the Midwest regional. The team totally treated me like I belonged, even though I didn't, and I was hooked. That year I ended up going to IRI with the team, and, literally on the spur of the moment, I also traveled that summer to the Baxter Ozark Mountain Brawl (great off-season comp, btw....wish it still existed) with the team. My family was responsible for my hotel stay and, I believe, a bus fee, but the team always treated me like I belonged, and that was one of the major things that drew me to FIRST.

The next year I joined the team and I've been involved in FIRST in some way or another ever since. So, if you don't have another team around that you can invite people from, it's also a great consideration to invite other people from your high school(s) who may not know what FIRST is all about, with the goal of maybe recruiting for next year's team.

[Ashley Christine]

Well, This year I went with a team to some regionals, and the championship. I thought it was a good learning experience, and now my own team will have someone with experience of travelling and how other things in FIRST work. The only problem was that they didnt understand at first, they thought I was abandoning them. So if the person is on a team, and going with another.. they should assure there team that they are not leaving them, just to make sure there are no misunderstandings.

-Ashley

[Jill1022]

What about off-season events?

Should the individual pay or should the team? Which team?

I know I would pay my way completely.

[Corey Balint]

This year, i mooched off another team twice.

At UTC, i hitched rides with 195 and helped cheer for them in return. I also gave them some strategy advice.

At Philadelphia, i stayed with 56. I helped with ECDU, Scouting, Strategy, and whatever else they needed help with.

Its always good to see how other teams work, and how you can use their ideas for your team, or show them what your team does if you think its better.

And ya, you are probably best off paying for yourself. Thats the right thing to do. If they offer to pay, then it would be up to you.

[JamesBrown]

121 Brought ME, another student and a meentor to Atlanta, They covered the bus and the Saturday party and we payed for the hotel for ourselves.

[mtaman02]

First Off I wouldn't mind inviting another member from a different team as long as:
1) they pay their own way if they can not be sponsored financially by the team inviting them.
2) they are not a known troublemaker ( not every team has a trouble maker b/c many teams have high standards set so that they weed these students out )

(this really is not the same as the original post above but I'll try and make some sense out of it)
For Instance I asked my old team coach if I and my sister can attend the nationals with them, he gave the ok except the only issue that came up with her attending the nationals with my old team was that her school was also attending the nationals and my coach couldnt really grasp why she wanted to come down with them rather then her HS. ( out of GP I will only give a partial reason why she wouldn't go down with her HS - Shes not a big fan of her HS nor does she like it in general ) =(

Getting back on track here: I give it a thumbs up to bringing other members with you to the competitions. I don't see any real reason why it would be a problem to bring them with you.

[Tytus Gerrish]

i went with 1083 to IRI last Year

[Ashley Christine]

Well, they should not expecting it to be free. But, if the team offers to pay then they could always graciously accept. lol I know I had to pay for meals at all of them... and a few other small parts of the trip because I was lucky to have most of it covered. But ask the team how much they would want you to cover if you went, if all, then I guess thats what you gotta do to do what you wanna do