Student 'contributions' / fees to attend regionals

[sdcantrell56]

Originally Posted by Mr. Freeman

My "old" team, 1552 doesn't have a fee for being a member of the team. Students may have to pay for their T-shirt depending on the financial situation.

I see charging fees to be on a team as a brilliant way to drive away potential members. I know I wouldn't have joined the team if I had to pay $100 to be part of it. My parents probably wouldn't have liked it either.

In response to this, when I was in high school and a part of the football team for 4 years, we had to raise or pay $300 per person to cover many expenses. Almost all sports at my old highschool and all club sports have some type of fee to pay. I really don't see a reason to not have everyone on the team be responsible for raising $100-300, either through fundraising or just paying a fee. Of course there should be opportunities for the students to raise the money instead of relying on their parents, and there should also be exceptions for low income students, although having fundraising opportunities would take care of that scenario.

[ATannahill]

I've said this before but I feel that it should be reiterated. In my freshman year I was only able to attend the local regional because of monetary problems. Because of this some people felt I was not interested in the team, and did not tell me about summer projects. This year I thankfully was able to be more active during the competition season, but be sure that the students that are not financially gifted are still involved.

[McGurky]

Our team has never had to do this in the past, but I am seriously thinking about it for next year. although for our regional each member had to pay $98 for hotel and transportation.

[cpeister]

I agree, it is a turn off to potential team members to require a large monetary committment. However, we try to make it clear in the fall of each year, BEFORE we start asking for $$, that if anybody has financial problems, to talk to the mentors. We would never turn anybody away or prevent them from attending an event due to their financial situation.

In the past, our team has had what we call personal fundraisers. Two years ago, we sold pizza cards (they cost $10 and gave the cardholder a buy 2 get one free deal). Each student could sell as many as they liked, up to the cost of team fees, and they would keep that money to offset their team fees. So if anybody needed to save money, they could sell 35 pizza cards and pay their team fees.

The team wouldn't turn their back on someone and leave them with 35 pizza cards though. We would still at the very least cover a portion of their fee.

[Billfred]

For both 1618 and 2815 this past season, students that qualified to travel were only on the hook for food. 1618 collected this money from the students before the event, while 2815 left it to those traveling to have the money with them. There are pros and cons to both.

[ttldomination]

At the start of the year, each member is required to pay a 50$ fee, or 25$ per semester. If someone cannot afford the fee, then we usually wave the fee, but so far that hasn't happened, or at least not that I know of.

But after that, we are on our own. We pay for everything else that comes with robotics. That would include shirts, hotel rooms, and food. But that's about it. Our excellent sponsors (Motorola, Cognex, EMD Software) handle all of the regional fees and a part of the transportation/hotel costs.

[AdamHeard]

there is a $300 fee for each year, which doesn't even come close to covering the travel.

Students who can't afford to the fee can have it waived by putting in good work for the team, but they have to put in good work. Students have every opportunity to fund raise, so we don't believe in giving free rides to students just because they "can't" afford it.

[Doug G]

We have shifted to making students/parents responsible for all travel costs (airfare, bus, hotel), food during build season, 2 shirts, and possibly registration fees, if the team cannot raise sponsorships for those (which hasn't happen yet). So depending on the year and where we travel to, students/parents are looking at $100 minimum (attending 1 local regional) to $1200 (attending 1 local, 1 out of town but < 500 miles, and 1 out of state). Almost every student/parent fundraises a good portion of these costs. We are lucky to have a local Bingo hall where all the proceeds goes to those who work it. This last year we made about $18k for parents that worked there so that they and their students basically travel for free. Those that don't work the bingo hall usually have to write a big check at some point to pay for travel. We also do car washes, fruit snack sales, and computer raffle tickets which are tracked per student and profits they make go into their account.

[Alex Dinsmoor]

Students on the FEDS (201) are required to pay a joining fee of $100 each year to pay for two regionals or three FiM competitions and a shirt. We also impose a fee of $100-$200 for Atlanta though due to bus and hotel fees. The Atlanta fee may have been higher if AVL had not stepped in at the last moment and helped us go to Atlanta

The students are also "advised" to participate in the majority of fundraising events, which are mostly can drives throughout the year to pay for things like buttons and off season events (along with competitions).

Of course if a student cannot pay the $100 fee we will find a way around it so that no one who is accepted onto the team gets turned away due to money issues.

So here is the quick breakdown of the budget:

Item Amount Raised
Student Fees $3,500
Can Drives $2,500-$3,000
Sponsorship $25,000-$30,000

[McGurky]

What could be implemented is a kind of "personal account" we use it for our boy scout troop, and it works awesome!!

There are many fund raisers throughout the year that the scout has the chance to do or not to do. If the scout opts out of them, they will be charges a fee of like 20 or 30 bucks.

If they decide to take part in the fund raiser, there will be a goal set(same for everyone) like $350 of popcorn. The troop will get 50% of the profit from the first $350 and the scout will get the other 50% to go into his account. But if the scout sells more than $350 they keep 100% of the profit after 350(in their account).

It is great because Then If you want to buy a shirt or go on an outing, you don't have to write out a check every meeting, you just check a box saying"charge my account" It works great!!!

The best part is that if a scout has financial difficulties, they can just do more fund raising, and they are all set for the year!

-Kyle

[Alex Dinsmoor]

Originally Posted by McGurky

What could be implemented is a kind of "personal account" we use it for our boy scout troop, and it works awesome!!

There are many fund raisers throughout the year that the scout has the chance to do or not to do. If the scout opts out of them, they will be charges a fee of like 20 or 30 bucks.

If they decide to take part in the fund raiser, there will be a goal set(same for everyone) like $350 of popcorn. The troop will get 50% of the profit from the first $350 and the scout will get the other 50% to go into his account. But if the scout sells more than $350 they keep 100% of the profit after 350(in their account).

It is great because Then If you want to buy a shirt or go on an outing, you don't have to write out a check every meeting, you just check a box saying"charge my account" It works great!!!

The best part is that if a scout has financial difficulties, they can just do more fund raising, and they are all set for the year!

-Kyle

My scout troop uses a system just like this also, and I must agree with you that it works really well! If a scout cannot pay my troop's dues, then they just take it out of their account.

The only reason this may be a problem in FIRST is the issue of fundraising as a team.

Maybe instead of an account, a team just records how much total a person has fund raised. That way you know how much you have, and can see if they have fundraised enough and so that people just aren't sitting on large sums of fundraised money.

[EricH]

My scout troop does the same thing. However, we also have some group fundraisers. Some percentage of the total profits is credited to the individuals who work the fundraisers, in a ratio based on how much time they put in out of the total. The rest goes into a more general fund for troop expenses.

[Collin Fultz]

On 234, students are required to pay fees that help cover travel, as well as fees that help cover shirts/jerseys/polos/windbreakers/etc.

Also, all students are required to bring in a small business community sponsor. This requirement has two main purposes. First, it helps the team raise the vital funds necessary for survival. Second, it pushes the student outside their comfort zone, forcing them to go out into the world and talk to people about FIRST. These sponsorships come in many forms. Most are monetary, but some have resulted in relationships with suppliers and machine shops to help with building the robot.

In my experience with the team, we have not had a student not be on the team because of the fees or fundraising requirements. If a student cannot afford the fees or does not want to pay them, they can generate more sponsors to offset some of that cost.

In the end, it's an investment in your future. If parents and students cannot see the value in the team, then we as a team are not doing our job of showing the benefits of being a team member.

Because of FIRST, I recieved a full-tuition scholarship to Purdue which provided me with an amazing education. I also recieved a high school internship with one of our sponsors, which turned into a full-time co-op role, which is now a full-time engineering position. Not a bad return on investment, in my opinion. In fact, I'd argue that in a world with so much uncertainty, FIRST and programs like it are one of the surest bets out there.

[Pjohn1959]

We have not required our students to pay for anything in the past. In the last 2 years, we have attended 2 regionals plus championships. We also compete in Vex and BEST. Again, no cost to them.

After reading the comments in this thread from other teams, I think that it is important that the students have some type of 'buy in' to our program.

Originally Posted by Collin Fultz

In the end, it's an investment in your future. If parents and students cannot see the value in the team, then we as a team are not doing our job of showing the benefits of being a team member.

In fact, I'd argue that in a world with so much uncertainty, FIRST and programs like it are one of the surest bets out there.

I couldn't agree more. Our problem is that the student population is made up of over 96% economically challenged families, and also on the free/reduced lunch program. So trying to collect any monies for fees is next to impossible.

I do like the idea of sending them out to talk to small businesses about sponsorship. Thanks Collin.

Since our whole team is graduating this year (I know, not very well planned), we will be starting with a complete new set of faces next year. I think that by setting goals for them at the beginning will benefit both the team and the students.

[Alex Dinsmoor]

This idea of each person bringing in a small sponsor seems like a really good idea. The only question I have is what if someone doesn't want to bring in a small business or cannot get one due to various problems? Also do you put dollar ammounts on these small sponsorships, or is it just the interaction tyt you are looking for?