Our listed schedule was M-Th 5:30-9, Sat 10-5 with team dinner for the first half hour of M-Th and lunch during Saturday. Our actual schedule ended up being meeting until about 9:30-10:30 on M-Th and ended up meeting on Sunday’s the last few weeks.
I seem to meet quite a bit more frequently on my high school team (I remember meeting on Fridays and listening to football games, so probably Sundays as well).
I’m just curious what kind of hours other teams keep.
Nominally, 358 met 7-11pm Mon-Fri and Saturday 10am-6pm.
A couple of January Saturdays were missed because I had other commitments and wasn’t there to open the school.
The last couple of Sundays we added 10 or 12 to 6pm to make up for snow closings.
And we have winter break on the last Monday/Tuesday, so we met 10am-midnight those two days.
Afternoons after school are for homework, and mentors can join the students after work when we start at 7pm.
RoboPride met Tuesday from 3:30-8, Friday 3-10, and Saturday 10-7. Like many of you, we stayed much later than those hours indicate.
The toughest series of events was last weekend. We worked on Friday until 2:30 in the morning, when suddenly the class bells sounded. We figured that was a good time to go home. We then reconvened at 9am to drive to our week 0 practice which was an hour away.
I was at school from 7am to 1am quite a few times this build season. Tomorrow I’m going to be “sick”.
Our schedule has been the same for the 8 years we’ve been a team.
All year, we meet on Wednesdays after school (or in the summer around noon) - 8:00pm
During the season, we meet:
Saturdays 9/10 - whenever the work is done (usually after midnight. We give out “midnight merit badges” for those who stay late. Usually around 1-2am)
Sundays 12/1pm (after church) - 8:00pm.
And our usual Wednesday routine.
On the weekends, we have parents cook meals and bring them to the team. This saves lots of time and money. We expect every parent to sign up for at least one meal, even if it means you work with another parent or two. This is also a good bonding experience for the team, and while eveyone is in the same room, we do sub-team reports and any other announcements. This is a good experience for our kids to practice presenting to their peers as well, and it makes everyone accountable. On Wednesdays, we usually go out to eat (we are within walking distance of many restaurants, as well as the university’s student union food court). But we have a team meeting back in the shop after.
Also, other days are scheduled as needed. We work through most snow days, as well as MLK Day and Super Bowl Sunday.
We do this schedule to allow students to do other extra-curriculars. We don’t require every meeting, but we expect everyone to put in their fair share of the work. I.e. if you have to miss a few days or half-days, we understand, as long as you get your work done. Wednesdays we also tell students that homework is a priority. If you have homework that needs to be done, this is the best opportunity to get help from your peers or mentors if you need it. Homework first, then robots.
Week 1 of build season:
Tuesday and Thursday 4-8, Saturday 9-2
Week 6 of build season:
M-F 2-9, Saturday 9-2.
Weeks 2-5 were between these extremes.
These are just the times the shop was open. Some of these times were with the full team, and some were just driver practice, programming, or a few build members.
We settled on a regular schedule several years ago that continues to work for us.
Tuesday: 3-5 afterschool shift; 5:30 team meeting; 6-8 evening shift
Wednesday: 3-5 afterschool shift; 5:30-7:30 evening shift
Thursday: 3-5 afterschool shift; 5:30-7:30 evening shift
Friday: 5-8 evening shift
Saturday: 9-5 weekend shift (with lunch break)
Sunday and Monday are usually days off.
This schedule runs during Build Season, plus another week or two after Stop Build while we work on spare/replacement parts and pit organization. We add more time and more days as appropriate, but we don’t normally call the extra work sessions “official” for the purpose of counting attendance.
Students are required to spend productive time at least half of the work days in order to remain “in good standing” and be eligible for team travel.
Monday-Wednesday, Friday: 4 - 6 PM <—Plan kid driven what needs done what happened etc.
Saturday: 10 AM - 5 PM (potluck) <—Build day w/ mentor supervision
Off days; Sunday, Thursday
Slight deviations for holidays (no mtg) and I think we had a Sunday Plan session in there after launch
A few Saturdays went a bit longer until sundown.
Monday-Friday excluding Wednesdays: 3:00 to 9:00 PM
Sat-Sun: 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM
Later in build season some of us stayed a lot later, up to about 2:30 AM or so during the President’s Day weekend.
Didn’t even have time to fully test the robot before bagging it, but at least it was tested compared to last year.
First five weeks
Monday: 4:30-6:30
Wednesday: 4:30-7:30
Friday: 3:30-9:00
Saturday: 10AM-6PM
Week 6
Monday: 4:30-6:30
Tuesday-Wednesday: 4:30-9:00
Thursday: 3:30-9:00
Friday-Saturday: 10AM-9PM
Sunday: 12PM-5PM
Day Before Bag Day: 10AM-9PM
Bag Day: 10AM-8PM