The Saturday times are a hard pill to swallow. Have you checked with your Community Ed? Usually they have some say on how to schedule buildings and rooms. This is how we (4607) have established our times in the past. It is worth a look.
2869 Schedule
Weekdays
We technically have days from 2:30 - 7:30 during the build season however very few days do we ever actually go that late as our mentors are tired and have other commitments. More realistically is 2:30 to 5 every week day.
and then we have Saturdays from about 11am - 3pm.
This year I am going to try to see if we can push Saturdays a little later so better mesh with my work schedule and give all the members some much needed sleep.
2386’s schedule,
Week 1
Mon, Wed, Fri 2:30 - 5/6ish
Tues, Thurs 2:30-8/9ish
Sat 8am-3pm
Weeks 2-5
Tues, Thurs 2:30-9
Sat 8am-3:30pm
Week 6
All hands on deck, red alert, whenever students can come in during the week plus regular/extended hours.
Tues, Thurs 2:30-10+
Sat 8am-4pm+
Our build season schedule last year was:
M-F: 5:30-8
Saturday: 9am-5pm
Sunday: 12-5
From what I’ve been told, it seems like we are definitely not doing a 7 day schedule this year. We’ll probably do a 4 day a week schedule. I think that’s a good thing. It should help increase grades and will definitely keep us fresh for each day we come in. From what I’ve been told, this shouldn’t effect productivity. We won’t be as tired and we should stay on task more.
s,m,t,w,t: 16:30-17:00 until 22:30 at least
f:12-13 until 16:30
s:10:00-20:00
usually the day before stop-build we work all night
We usually meet 3 to 4 nights a week and Saturdays. We had some families that wanted to keep Sunday obligations.
It’s easy to get so caught up in the intensity of build that we forget we need some down time to recharge and get a fresh head. Taking a day off will only happen if you make it a priority as important as any other team meeting.
Long hours do not equate to productive hours. Individually, a lot of team members spend a lot of time thinking and brainstorming in between meeting so they come in with a plan of action ready to get to work.
We have most recently been meeting:
Tues.
Wed. > 6p - 9p
Thur.
Sat. > 9a - 4p
But we’re considering adding a day during the week.
I haven’t looked into this myself, but I know that Caleb has the same opinion I do, so I expect the team leadership has explored some options.
I don’t know if they’ve looked into this though. Thanks for the suggestion.
On weekdays except Monday, the hours are 5:45 pm to 9:30 pm. Saturdays are 9 am to 9 pm, Sundays are 12 pm to 6 pm. Once we’re nearing the end of build season we open it up more though.
Our build schedule is:
M-F 6:30pm-9pm
Sat 8am-4pm
Sun (extra credit) 9am-5pm
Attendence during midterms is optional. Our schedule favors nights and weekends due to all of our mentors being working parents.
We may need to look at using our time more efficiently. Right now, it’s drop in. I worry about mentors and students who feel the need to not miss a minute. That’s a recipe for burn out. If we used these times to schedule subteam meetings for their respective projects, thus making it clear which people need to be in at which time, we’d probably get more done without overworking certain members.
What about competition season schedule’s? I’m really curious how many teams meet after stop build.
2502:
Monday-Friday: 3-9
Saturday: 12-9
2451:
Monday OFF
Tu-Fri 6:00pm-9:00pm
Saturday 9am-9pm
Sunday 9am-9pm (First two weeks and when needed)
The 9pm usually turns into midnight when needed.
Depends. Generally the day or two right after stop build are pretty sparse if we bother to open up the shop. After that, we’ll generally maintain the same schedule with earlier closings, but during a pre-regional week we’re staying later to make sure stuff gets done that needs to get done.
Thanks for all the responses guys! Really appreciate it.
Working my way through them, so I have some data to bring to my team/school admin on how we can work this out.
Once again thanks for the info!
My team’s build schedule is:
Tuesday: 4:30PM-8:30PM
Thursday: 4:30PM-8:30PM
Saturday: 9:00AM-3:00PM
My team comes from two schools, so the students at the home base school do homework, etc. whilst students from the other school come over
Last year we met 5 days a week starting out. The weekday schedule was 4 to 8 usually, but many of us would stay until later, sometimes almost midnight (mainly Friday nights that late.) As the season went on, we started meeting Saturdays, 10 to 2 I believe, sometimes earlier, sometimes later. The last week of build season, we were there most nights until nearly midnight, weekends upwards of 8 hours a day. Our policy is to attend every practice (maybe not when we switched to 7 days), and to be there for most of the time. Last year we had a more lenient schedule but since then we have harden it.
Wow. That is significantly a lot smaller (less time) build schedule than most teams.
M-Th 6:30-9pm
Sat 8-6ish
Sunday when schedules are not met.
Typically if you are holding up the team, you may work more.
CAD crunch, Fab Crunch, Build Crunch, Electrical Crunch, Programming never rests…
I figured as much. This still seems like a pretty big time commitment. I don’t know the exact reason why our schedule is like this, although I think it may have to do with student engagement and mentor availability.
Interestingly, powerhouse and Hall of Fame team 67 has a very similar schedule to us, according to their website:
Tuesdays and Thursdays: 4:00PM-7:00PM
Saturday: 8:00AM-4:00PM