Inter-school Team Membership

[Mr MOE]

As was already mentioned multiple times, the main issue here is liability. There are two main ways to address this. The least expensive is to create your program under an existing 501 (c)(3) non-profit group [4-H, Boy Scouts, Learning for Life - Exploring, etc.]. The other, more expensive option is to create your own 501 (c)(3) organization.

MOE 365 was part of Learning for Life at our inception. We have since incorporated and purchased insurance that covers our members. I would imagine that most situations involving members from two schools joining to form a team, if schools are amenable, could work out a liability arrangement. However, if not, one of the two options above is what you've got. Unless your group has other reasons for creating a 501(c)(3) organization, you might want to go the lesser expensive route.

If you are planning to take the leap to creating a 501(c)(3) non-profit, there have been some very good threads relating to the process. Also, MOE gave a presentation at this year's FIRST Robotics Conference on this topic. Charts are available on the FIRST website.

Good luck!