For those who lack dedication...

[macurtis]

The policy on my team is that we put in a certian amount of hours and the quality of what has been produced in that time is evaluated and on top of that, we're required 2 community service projects and at least Ds for grades in our classes to go to regionals or even the championship. But that's our policy on who goes to competitions and who doesn't.

[JakeGallagher]

Our team has always had people on it that weren't quite dedicated. While we wouldn't dream of cutting people off the team, we do have rules that are in place to prevent undedicated members. Without fulfilling the requirements, a person isn't allowed to attend the competition unless they take an unexcused absence and get themself there.
First, you have to attend a certain amount of fundraising...depending on how much time/effort each fundraiser takes changes a little of the weight of the event. For example, if you show up for an event, and don't help plan for it or help set up/clean up...you don't get a lot of credit for the fundraiser. If you planned the whole thing out and were there for the whole time, you get extra props.
Next, each member has to attend at least half of the meetings since they joined the team. Only half of the time is required because there are people that just can't make every meeting. The reason may be that they have sports, or they can't get a ride...Whatever it is, if you can only make the weekend meetings, that's just as much time as all the week meetings together.
If you don't fulfill these two attendance rules, chances are that you are one of the people that really doesn't care about much other than getting out of school for the competition. If you are someone who just couldn't make it to the meetings, but you worked hard at everything you did...you do get an exception.
It may sound mean, but if people are just going to show up to screw around at the meetings (possibly endangering others), and they just want to be on the team to get out of school come comp time...they shouldn't be there at all.

[Liz C]

Originally Posted by JBotAlan

Try leaving messages like the ones Zac Hitt, our captain, left on my machine. www.geocities.com/jakethebrikhed/ZacGayness.mp3

Seriously, try assigning important jobs to each person, and call persistantly. That way, you know if they are still part of the team, or if they quit, so you can stop wasting your time and energy calling them. That in itself should do it. Good luck.

Yeah, I agree. We call people, e-mail, post on the team's forum, and "stalk" them in homeroom/halls. Calling has proven to be the most efficient, though.

But with the issue of letting them go to the regionals: we have a small team, and would love for everyone to be extremly dedicated, but sometimes, people just aren't that into it...until they see it for themselves at a regional. If you take them to a competition, chances are they'll get hooked.

You could tweak your policy a bit, and require a certain amount of hours that they give to the team, and keep a log in the workshop. If they still don't commit, than you might want to inform them that you cannot consider them a member because of their lack of dedication. Its a somewhat long process, but it helps us keep those who just were a little hazy about robotics in general for their first year.

[TimCraig]

This year we're doing two regionals, both out of town. (The NASA grant to go to Las Vegas was too good to pass up). We decided to skip Silicon Valley since being local really didn't seem to affect how much support we got from club members and the school in general. It's easier to control the students when we're out of town. However, as a lot of the students seem to think the club should subsidize their travel and accomodations, we're trying to keep track of who actually contributes to the robot before handing out resources.

I also think the floor teams should be very familiar with the robot as if we get to the finals, they may have to make repairs on the floor. This happened to us last year in Sacramento. This year no one seems to have the attention span to pay attention to how the robot is going together. This is becoming very frustrating to me. There's so much in the assembly that the students don't have the mechanical skills to really do (or at least these students) but my feeling is they should be watching and learning how it is done. Then when some of the simpler and more repetitive tasks come along, they could take over and finish. But after a few minutes of watching apparently they've spent their attention span and are off partying. I haven't had a day off since the kickoff and it's getting old, can you tell?

[Nick Seidl]

I have noticed that many teams mentioned in this thread make a point of setting attendance/contribution and academic requirements for the students on the team. Setting standards is a great way to let students know where they need to stand. But simply putting these measures in place or making it a stick and carrot scenario is not enough. Having been a team mentor for two years, and being an education major (technology education to be exact), I have learned that the next step is assuring every student feels that they have something valuable to do. Do just tell them "hey, quit slacking, and go do something." Rather, go yourself and find something for them to do, and make sure they realize the significance of their task to the success of the team. Keep on them about this too, don't just give them direction once, and expect them to keep going. Some students just need a little more motivation than others. I don't know how large some of your teams are, but I can tell you that this is obviously more difficult to do on larger teams. Also, newer students are less likely to be as motivated as some of the veterans on the team, but is important to keep them interested, and realizing potential student leadership in these students for a few years down the road when they become the backbone of the team.