Applying for your team?

[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

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Team 648 doesn't require an application, I've never seen the pro's to this*. As a member, you must make 75% of meetings from January to April and maintain a C average in your classes.

*I've never understood the advantages of having the "best" students. One of the FLL teams in the QC is "gifted" children only and I've decided to have to involvement in them for that reason.

[Scott Ritchie]

Originally Posted by Budda648

Team 648 doesn't require an application, I've never seen the pro's to this*. As a member, you must make 75% of meetings from January to April and maintain a C average in your classes.

*I've never understood the advantages of having the "best" students. One of the FLL teams in the QC is "gifted" children only and I've decided to have to involvement in them for that reason.

IT is not always an attempt to get the best students but the ones that need the program most. We just can't keep 70 to 80 students busy. Our number of students we can be most affective with is around 40. This is also a great learning experience of the kids. They learn how to fill out applications, resumes, and perform in an interview.

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Originally Posted by Scott Ritchie

IT is not always an attempt to get the best students but the ones that need the program most. We just can't keep 70 to 80 students busy. Our number of students we can be most affective with is around 40. This is also a great learning experience of the kids. They learn how to fill out applications, resumes, and perform in an interview.

Between 70-80 students apply each year?! I guess those are the perks of living in a major metropolitan area like Indy.

My response was mostly prompted by this:

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.

I would like to know how many people apply to be on team 47 and exactly why they want the "best." I most definitely wouldn't be defined as "best" but look at me now, FIRST has changed my life and has the ability to change thousands of other students' lives. Why keep that from them?

[65_Xero_Huskie]

Our team has an application process where you must fill out one and write a 500 word essay and do an interview. We conduct ours like a business place. Along with this you must keep up a 3.0 GPA and come to around 3/4 the meetings.
We usually get around 25 people that apply and we only travel with 20. We have alternates who are not on the team but who still halp and try to get on the travel team and whoever shows the work usually travels (Even if it ends up being more than 20 )

[JesseK]

1885 allows any student who's non-disruption and not distracting to come to our meetings. We enjoying working with any student willing to learn, no matter the knowledge level.

To travel, students must have a certain % attendance or have contributed to a significant portion of the robot, website, or community outreach. We have a set amount of seats on the bus/plane and most of the time we know who is going to the events well before competition season. Students also must maintain a C average or better in ALL classes in order to travel, as this is a county-wide policy for all extracirrucular activities I've recently learned. Finally, students must pay or help fundraise for their travel, hotel, and food on trips. Any student who we feel deserves a trip but cannot make it due to financial reasons, we either fundraise for or on a rare occasion the Mentors get a fund together -- done anonymously of course.

I definitely see the point in the application/interview process though. It allows students to become oriented with that type of process and hopefully will help them communicate their strengths better to the group during build season and in the future when they're going for a job.

[GaryVoshol]

One thing a good process can get you is making sure information is passed both ways. Students will supply contact information - phone, cell, email, address, emergency contact - for themselves and their parents/guardians, any medical information the team leaders should know, etc. Also what area(s) the kids are interested in working on. Teams will be able to provide to the students and their parents what is expected of them - financial, fundraising and time commitments, grade and behavior policies, etc. By requiring a parent signature, teams can be sure that parents know what their student is signing onto.

That could be considered a registration process or an application process. If there are additional inputs for application, such as an essay or teacher recommendation, it serves as a moderate indication of the how serious the student is about joining. For teams that have a limited number of members, the additional application process (vs. just registration) can be used to decide who is admitted onto the team.

[santosh]

all that want to join are allowd to, since we are so large (120+ and still growing), we have everyone fill out an application of what sub team they want to be on the most (FIRST build, VEX build, BEST build, tech team, fundraising, etc) and we place them by that and other things that we ask them about
being able to maintain a good grade during the build season is taken into account.

[vivek16]

nope no application this year. although next year that might be nice just to get some contact information in the beginning.

-vivek