how often does your team meet during build season?

[RyanS]

This year 294 met every day during the build season. Weekdays 5-9 and Weekends 9-9.

[vivek16]

do you think that people could do an after school activity and still do FIRST? One of our core group of four from last year does nordic skiing and would not be able to make it to meetings until five.

thanks, vivek

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by vivek16

do you think that people could do an after school activity and still do FIRST? One of our core group of four from last year does nordic skiing and would not be able to make it to meetings until five.

The TechnoKats arranged multiple meeting times on certain days last year, with one "shift" running from immediately after school until 6pm, and another from 6-9. This was mostly to accommodate engineering mentors with a day job, but it also made it possible for students participate in other afternoon events without missing too many build sessions.

[synth3tk]

Hmm, I never thought of doing it that way. We had a member in band who was constantly missing meetings. I might bring that up with our team, about starting later in the day.

[Madison]

488 is in a unique situation and so we run things a bit differently than most teams out there. We transport ~90% of our team members to and from meetings since, in some cases, it's a 30 mile trip and we live in an urban area and most of the students don't have cars.

Student meetings are Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday; from 6:00 pm until 10:00 pm during the week and from 9:00 am until about 5:00 pm on weekends. Mentors usually meet on the remaining days -- Monday, Wednesday, and Friday -- to organize and prepare for the following day's meeting. Because our enrollment is large -- anywhere between 40 and 60 students in a given year -- and because we're providing transportation to most of them, we "invite" students to meetings based on need, though everyone may attend on Saturdays. That means that some students might be meeting three or more times a week, while others come only on Saturday.

For teams that meet at a school, this sort of system probably isn't necessary, but because we have students coming to us from all over the city and because we're meeting at our sponsor out in the 'burbs, we have to run things a little bit differently than your average team.

[MChapman]

OH this is classic for Aces... mon-thur 6-9ish. Sat an sun 10-5/6. an if needed the over nighter before our scrimmage. its fun stuff!!

[Billfred]

It was made officially official today. To qualify for travel:

-70% of three-afternoons-a-week meetings (that's 14/20)
-60ish% of Saturday meetings (4/7)
-$100 (less, we hope, but that's the working number)

There are some alternatives in the works for those who just plain can't do one or the other, but by and large these are the rules.

[synth3tk]

Hmmm, club fees. That's an untraditional way of collecting money for a FIRST team, as far as I know. How's that working out for you all?

[vivek16]

club fees are implemented on team 2264 this year as well. They are more to retain members than to fundraise. there might be more people staying for something they paid for than not.

-vivek

[synth3tk]

Never really thought about it that way. I know if I paid $50 for something I sure as heck would want to be a part of it.

[Mitch1525]

1525 is kinda crazy-ish

Mon-Thru = 6:00 PM- 9:00 PM
Friday = 6:00 PM- 11:00 PM (early season)
Saturday = 9:00 AM- 10:00 PM (early season)
Sundays = 9:00 AM- 1:00 PM (depending on fi there's a football game)

Friday = 6:00 PM- 2:00 AM (end of season)
Saturday = 9:00 AM- 3: AM (end of season)

Weekend of shipping = NO SLEEP AT ALL!!!!!!!

it's great... meetings are not mandatory, just strongly encouraged because we have a relatively small team.

[synth3tk]

I have a question for teams, specifically ones who meet in schools, who can meet late or stay all night. How did you persuade the administration/janitors to let you stay?

[njamietech]

I would just like to say that I am suprized at how many teams have mandatory days.

In my opinion teams should not require their members to attend as school, religion, health, and family all come before any after school activity or event.

this is one of the reasons why team 624 has in the past conformed to the system set up by the University interscholastic league (UIL), which states that a student must be passing in all classes otherwise they cannot participate until the next progress report is sent out (and if they are still failing they still must wait).

but that system has not been implemented since we have changed faculty sponsors.

but still, teams should not require members to attend as grades, family, ect. all come first.

[synth3tk]

Well, I have to disagree somewhat. We have the grade requirements (not that high) on top of the meeting requirement. Now both have been set low enough to take into account the previously mentioned issues. But, at least for our school, we would have people who join just to go to the events, and maybe show up for one or two meetings. IMHO, this should be set from team-to-team, as the case may be different depending on region, city, main religion, etc.

[Nathans]

In order to participate in our team, you must be passing all your classes and have a certain GPA (I think it's 2.5). We also have requirements for going to events. The administration only allows 10 students per teacher, so we're limited to 20 per event. Our student board decides who goes on the trips, and those who don't to meetings that often are unlikely to make the cut.