Team rules

[ChrisMcK2186]

Hey all,

My team right now is trying to get all the kinks hammered out with our leadership setup and rules. We are a rookie team that found out we are a team in December, so we didn't have time to get a very structered rules set.

My question is this, do the teams out there have a written down set of rules or is it more implied guidlines? If you do have rules, what is the discipline for those who break them? If you do not have rules, how do you maintian order?

Thanks for your help with this,
Chris

[whytheheckme]

Originally Posted by ChrisMcK2186

Hey all,

My team right now is trying to get all the kinks hammered out with our leadership setup and rules. We are a rookie team that found out we are a team in December, so we didn't have time to get a very structered rules set.

My question is this, do the teams out there have a written down set of rules or is it more implied guidlines? If you do have rules, what is the discipline for those who break them? If you do not have rules, how do you maintian order?

Thanks for your help with this,
Chris

We have a handbook that our steering committee developed. This consists of behavioral rules, along with other rules, such as required participation.

We use the same system that FIRST has implemented this year (slightly modified). A student can receive a Yellow Card for bad behavior (can be received by any adult mentor, even if the student is not in their group.) The student must wear this Yellow Card (It clips on to their shirt) every time they come to robotics for the rest of the build season. They are allowed 2 Yellow Cards. After that, the third Yellow Card turns into a Red Card, which means suspension/removal from the team, depending on circumstances.

The handbook also outlines participation requirements, such as # Build Season Hours, # of Dollars, # of Community Service Hours, # of Group Fundraising Hours, # of Entries into Patron Book, etc. Check out Penfield Rolling Thunder's website; This is what we modeled our team after. They have all of their material available online (I think...)

If you have more questions as to how our team operations, feel free to ask.


Jacob

[ChrisMcK2186]

Whats the URL for the thunder site?

Chris

[Cynette]

Originally Posted by ChrisMcK2186

Whats the URL for the thunder site?

Chris

Rolling Thunder's website: http://www.penfieldrobotics.com/ The link for the Team Handbook is on the front page.

[Ben Martin]

We have team rules, though we don't exactly have a "list" (except for travel rules, which are pretty straightforward and are given to us before the competition season). In general, students are just expected to be on their best behavior and remember that they are representing the team.

A new "three strikes" rule was implemented this year to enforce discipline. If a student has three discipline issues, he or she can be restricted from traveling. Thankfully, nobody was subject to this rule this year. Everyone represented the team very well during both the build season and at competitions.

The biggest thing that our team does to enforce discipline is to hold interviews each year. On the way back from Atlanta, the whole team is disbanded (with the exception of our end of the year banquet in May). Every student must reapply, and if they have had discipline issues or haven't done their share of the work, they might not make the team again. Now, this may seem hard on some students, but they are allowed to re-interview later in the year and show if they are ready to be a member of the team again. This system has worked very well for us.

[M. Mellott]

Here is a link to our team's Student Handbook for this past season, available on our website:

http://www.delphielite.com/modules/g...20Handbook.pdf

It covers a number of topics such as team organization, travel guidelines, and grade requirements. It also has a full year calender that demonstrates our pre-season and build-season schedules, as well as copies of student forms used by the school.

[Alexa Stott]

Here is team 25's manual. I know the date on that is 2004, but the only major updates have been to add a section about our animation team. Everything else is more or less the same.

[ChrisMcK2186]

Martin, when does your team reassemble to hold interviews? Is it the next year or after competition? It sounds like a good idea but I'd like to know some more details so I have the most options available.

If anybody on the team gets a referal for breaking your schools honor code, i.e. cheating, lying or stealing, do you remove them from the team? I know that the honor societies at Westfield do that so I was wondering what everybody else does. It is not a problem and I hope it does not become one, I'm just trying to get the team a solid foundation for future years.

Another Idea I am thinking of I am inspired by my boy scout troop. If you are suspended or expelled from school, the example I was given was for drug use but its not limited to that, then you must sit down with the comitee and say why you should be allowed in the troop.

It sounds alot like what Martin was talking about but without having to interview the whole team, just those who are a problem.

Thanks for all the posts and help, I'll let you know when we get a solid rule set down,

Chris

[Scott Carpman]

We use a Team Constitution that has been in effect for this season. It was created in order to have more autonomy within the school's chain of command. So far it has been invoked once to remove a student.

[Herodotus]

We have a simple set of unwritten rules that people just sort of pick up on in the pre-season. Mostly it is simple common sense as opposed to any very specific or strict rules. When it comes to behavior you simply act with respect towards everyone on the team and everyone else we happen to meet with in the course of the season, and that basically covers all the bases. When it comes to safety we have the simple safety glasses when operating the tools in our machine shop, and make sure you keep the point bits pointed away from you. We also have a set of guidelines and releases we had to sign at the beginning of the year.

However we have had to create one very specific rule. Don't put sprockets in an empty pizza box and then throw it into the garbage. Something we learned from experience.

[Pelicano234]

As a rookie team, we only had a few rules:
1. You had to participate for 160 hours (which was quite easy, some kids ended up with close to 300 hours)
2. You had to bring in a meal for the team once during the build season
3. You had to raise $100 for the team

This worked out well for us and we will probably do something like it next year

[Simon Strauss]

Originally Posted by Scott Carpman

We use a Team Constitution that has been in effect for this season. It was created in order to have more autonomy within the school's chain of command. So far it has been invoked once to remove a student.

The constitution Scott is speaking of can be found here http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/search/results/51666

-Simon

[mtaman02]

The Reason for the rule was b/c Kids of all ages - Including Mentors - kinda get carried away when trying to get their point across and kids usually learn from the adults. So to prevent kids from going off and using any words that come into their heads you start regulating whats appropriate and whats not. I work around many many people daily and there are soooo many other words to use other then the available cuss words. I admit I'm no saint but I restrain my vulgar opinion when in the public view whether at work or at an event with my old team or at an event by myself. Point Being teach the young ones now before they get out into the work force / continue on to college that there is no room for vulgarity. Respect the ones around you to obtain respect from them. Yes the members of all these teams in FIRST come from High Schools but not all these members no right from wrong. Teach them now while it's still easy to do so before they find out the hard way. And pray that the hard way is not by costing the team an award.

[65_Xero_Huskie]

This
May
Help

[AmyPrib]

TechnoKats have their handbook published on their website.

http://www.technokats.org/handbook.php

It defines costs, fundraising, student involvement requirements, school grades, time committments, travel, etc..

I'm not sure what type of "rules" you are looking for exactly, but if our students do not maintain their school grades, or put in the required time for the team, and other various things that are required, they don't get to travel to competitions. As for other discipline matters, it's case by case, but we don't typically have any major issues.