Team 263 needs help

[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.