Applying for your team?

[sheltie234]

Hey, I'm just curious how other teams get members or how students become members of their robotics teams. For Cyber Blue, every member has to fill out an application and then go through two separate interviews with the mentors every year he/she wants to be on the team.

[Nuttyman54]

For both 971 and 190, if a student wants to join, he or she may join. All that is required is to come to meetings and build sessions.

[luciaes]

On 830 they have an announcement for meetings during the normal morning announcements at school, then basically all you have to do is show up, we have meetings every Friday before the season starts and then the people who don't like it stop comming.

[AndyB]

Every person has to submit an application, but lately, it has come to a point where, if you come, and you pay attention, then your are on. But if you start not showing up, then your off.

We have our team leaders (5 or 6) go through the applications with our lead mentor to decide who we want on.

[Kyle Love]

45 accepts everyone who comes as much as they can, you must come 50% of the time to travel though.

[Josh Murphy]

Chief Delphi has an application process. There is the veteran's application, which is for current members to re-apply, yes we have to re-apply every year, and do an interview with the team leaders. Then they make the decision if you come back on the team or not depending on what you did the year before. Then we have an application process for students that want to join and they have to fill out an application and get recomendations from teachers and current students on the team. Then they have to go through the interview process, then the team leaders invite the ones they think will fit the team best to join the team. Then in the fall they open it up to the 9th graders and they have to fill out an application and go through an interview, then they are selected by the team leaders. The interview process allows us to get the best of the best students that our school has to offer and it has always been that way and will continue to be that way.

[Chris Marra]

177 allows everyone to join provided they consistently come to most of the meetings and stay productive. People will gradually wane out during the season though as they lose interest or don't apply themselves.

[Billfred]

1618's rule (for 2007 at least) was that you had to make at least two-thirds of the three-a-week meetings to travel (and, to that end, get the shirt) though we never turned away anyone from working with us.

(I'm being loose with the word "travel" here; we're talking a fifteen-minute trip to downtown.)

[cooker52]

1501- We accept anyone who wants to join. We target age groups from 6-12 grades. They come, fill out a few 4-H sheets, they're good. We have a system that you have to work so many hours to come to BMR and etc. What stinks is that you have to fill out a 4-H Health Form and Student release form to go to any of the activities.

EDIT: For recruitment, I am going to a science club campout for middle schoolers to talk to their members, and just to hang out. We also attend parades and give handouts durring fundraisers.

[Sam N.]

Mitty Robotics (aka TKO 1351) is treated as a club. Anyone can join and anyone can leave. This makes it very difficult to keep the team roster up to date because there's so much member flow, especially at the start of each school year.

(Pulls up student roster now) Officially we have 52 members. We only have 22 active members though. The rest, we havent seen since the beginning of the year. (Yes our retention rate is horrible)

Every year though, all fifty-two members skip school to go to the regionals and cheer on a robot that they probably are seeing for the first time.

Things are a changin in 2008...

[Bharat Nain]

We accept just about anyone on our team. Eventually people weed out. However, to travel you must attend most meetings, maintain a C average in all your classes, and prove to the team that you are worth taking. We let most of the kids go to our home regional though. Sometimes they show a lot more interest in the next season. Our goal is to inspire as many students as possible so we do our best to keep them on the team. Students even tutor each other to keep their grades up.

[Zyik]

Show up at the meetings. Bring in a certain % of the fundraising for going to a regional. Thats pretty much it for us. We're shrinking as a team so we try to get members in and not to do anything that could discourage them.

[EricH]

Application, fundraise a bit (Spaghetti Dinner required, other fundraisers optional), and you're pretty much good to go assuming you're one of the first 15 students. (Capped at 15, and we haven't come close since 2003. It's not for lack of trying, though.)

[Guy Davidson]

Team 8 accepts anyone who wants to join and travel to the local regional. Since students had to pay for travel to remote regionals for the last few years, we let whomever wanted to pay join. However, people must show consistent attendance and interest (not to mention knowledge) to move into leadership positions.

[RoboMadi]

If you are interested in any kind of profession, you are welcome on 612. We have students from a broad range of majors and interests who work as a team to create 612.
(Mechanical, Electrical, Systems, Programmers, DEKA, Marketing, Animators, Business Management, Event Management, Team Promotions etc etc)
The only commitment we require for a member is to be able to put in some time and effort and have fun while doing it. This is what makes our team, one of its kind.

Imad