Team 263 needs help

[JamesBrown]

Originally Posted by nuggetsyl

How good is your football team? Schools spend around 200,000 on football teams.

Would the ban on your activity still apply if you got the team privately sponsored. When our school board wanted to cancel sports some students and parents mentioned that the Robotics team may be better to cancel because it was expensive and served less students, the arguement seemed alright until they realized that the team recieved no money from the school board or the city. It may be something to look into regardless of how the meeting tonight goes, Try to find local companies to donate money and or a workspace. If you find these things the school committee will have alot less power over the team.

Jamews

[the_unknown]

Sachem Robotics was primarily funded from outside sources. The schools budget for our team typically covered advisors and transportation (to regionals, Nationals was paid for by students / surplus sponsorship money / fundraising). Unfortunately one of our primary sponsor Symbol Technologies was forced to cut back their donation the last year we ran, and I believe they have plans to sponsor another team this year. As for local companies, there aren't many large ones left, and asking for sponsorships was something we planned on doing once we had permission to have a team.

As for a workspace, considering that we have two highschools a considerable distance apart and neither of them have companies that would/could provide a workspace nearby, we are kindof forced to used the schools area. Many students would be unable to get to are build area and probably not join. Along with this, if we were independent of the school, then people joining to fufill the National Honor Society club requirement would probably not join as there would be easier ways to meet the req. (While these people typically join just for the req., many of them do learn something and stay with the team)

[AdamHeard]

So.... How'd it go?

[Madison]

I'm hearing that they got it back.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

I'm hearing that they got it back.

That's good to hear


I sympathise with stories like these/ Our relationship with schools has been... well, awkward. We're not quite sponsored, but they haven't kicked us out of the tiny room we keep our stuff in. Good thing we have Northrop Grumman as a sponsor.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I am sorry I didn't get in on this earlier. You school district needs to know the number of students this program puts on the road to college. The numbers are far higher than an athletic program or school club. When you ask a parent what they want to see (and they are the ones paying the taxes) they will tell you they want their student to go on to higher education. Although many students are already thinking about advanced education, there are a number of students who are not.

[the_unknown]

The meeting with the board left us in an interesting situation. The Superintendent said that we would exist and that they would provide the funding for advisors HOWEVER, when speaking with the principal of the school at which the clubs meetings were to be hosted, he stated that we will not be permitted to fundraise OR recruit students until after the board approes are club at a meeting. The Superintendent's word was not enough, and we will probably have to wait until the next board meeting (The 12th of October) until we can begin to recruit, fundraise and begin teaching basics to new members. (There are only two returning members, Jessie and I, we don't really have any teachers that are extremely familiar with the tools we would be using, and it leaves a considerable amount of things to go over with new members in terms of safety and productivity)

[X-Istence]

Prepare a powerpoint presentation, and a speech and try to change his/her mind.

Your best approach is the entire for innovation and whatnot, and show what the students would be doing, what they would be striving for and whatnot. If you can get a volunteer teacher on board that would be even better (until they get their stipend).

[Mark McLeod]

What the Principal described holds true for the Hauppauge District as well. Each year we cannot meet as a team until our Board of Education votes to approve the club and the advisors. The Board rules the Superintendent, not the other way around. Even if the advisors don't change year-to-year. None of the clubs legally exist until that point (even if everyone knows they will exist, none of them will meet).

That doesn't mean you cannot start laying plans and do all the major footwork required to start off at full speed. For instance, our officers met, made plans beforehand, and had a car wash ready to go right after the Board approved us.
You can design and privately print your recruitment posters, flyers, tri-folds. Create lists of local businesses to approach and divvy the lists up so they're ready to handout. Get your sale pitch together. Talk to your friends and acquaintances to let them know the club is coming (they just can't sign up without the advisors and you can't make a firm promise of the Club until the Board approves). If you know of any people who are interested in technology, consider meeting just a few of them in the evenings to start going over

Roll with the punches and work through these surprise obstacles. The Principal is restricted by District policy and State law and really isn't there to make your life harder. He or she will work with you if you develop a friendly working relationship and help the Administration do it's job too.