Quick question…
Whats your criteria on team members attending a tournament? Do you count hours or meeting missed?
Last year we had a member that was in basketball and only attended one build meeting. Some people were upset that he still went to regionals and I was wondering if your team has a way to decide who goes and who doesn’t.
Thanks for the help
-Modeish
Teams usually attend more than one regional. Typically, everybody is invited to attend to the closest and most convenient Regional event. The way to get somebody hooked on FIRST is to let them see a competition, so it’s a very good idea to get the under-involved rookie to a competition so they have more motivation to stay involved the following year.
As for the Regionals that involve travel expenses, the students who know the robot really well (usually the students who spend the most time in the shop anyway) get to travel and attend the further-away events. It’s really really difficult to sit at a Regional and not have anything to do… so when it comes to deciding who should go, start with who is absolutely needed to achieve the team’s goals and work from there.
Grades.
Someone who didn’t help much during the build probably isn’t going to be considered very useful in the pits, but he or she won’t be denied the opportunity to attend a competition because of it.
Last year the students’ transportation and hotel costs for the Atlanta trip were partially paid by our sponsor, so there was a system employed to reward those who worked harder by covering more of their expense. All who met the grade requirement were welcome to accompany the team, though they might have had to pay more of their own way.
Team decisions
we have a system where if someone in the higher echelon (captain , vice captain etc) feels that someone isn’t doing enough work we call a vote in the group on whether they should come with us. As we are in the uk, it is impossible to go to mor ethan one regional really due to expensses and when we go we go on a touristy visit as well. Last year we had 2 people who were total no workers and who came just to visit new york and get cheap electrical stuff…
On our team, we have a minimum requirement for attendance in order to attend any of the competitions, whether it be the on or off season competitions. If you haven’t attended 75% of the meetings, you’re not allowed to attend the competition.
We use a star chart that tracks students attendance, grades, community service, essays (they are required to write a 250 essay about what FIRSt means to them and three journal entries, scouting, fundraising and they must attend safety training at the beginning of the season.
The Star chart is more important than ever this year because we can only take 30 kids to Atlanta and we have 32 so we have to at least leave 2 behind (which really sucks to be truthful).
For us its 80% to go to competitions of the team hours. Although doing work on different things outside of the meetings can get bonus hours and when they have a meeting at the last minute that had not been scheduled that also can get bonus hours. Also by watching the mill and lath videos count as extra (and you get to use them).
unfortunately our team has no real cut off. As long as your not a freshman, and u pay for your trip, then u go. Some people cough Bennie *cough*only show up to annoy everyone and still get to go on the trips.
-Grades
-Attendence
-Attitude
Our school is about 10 minutes from our regional (we’re lucky), so basically, anyone who isn’t a mean jerk, has good grades, and didn’t just sign up 2 meetings ago, they’ll go. Championships, well, the criteria is much more strict.
We have a complex system involving attendence and involement (meeting the meeting requirements mainly, there is also something about participating in fundraisers and such).
for each competition, there are a certain amount of robotics related hours, community service hours, and fund raisers *each team member * needs to have in order to go on a trip.
This year, for example, in order to go to both regionals (our local one (UCF) and out-of state one (Denver)) and the championship event, a student needs to have dedicated at least 90 hours to the robotics team itself (either helping design and assemble the robot, working on chairmans award or on the spirit comittee, or whatever), 10 community service hours elsewhere (its his/her choice), and needs to have participated in at least 7 fundraisers this year. if a team member has participated less than those requirements, then they may only go to one or both regionals. it really just depends on their hours, dedication, and attitude.
sure it may seem a little harsh to impose restrictions on who can do what even though they are interested in FIRST, but it ensures that the people truly involved and dedicated are allowed to have fun, and gives the slackers something to work for. 
(honestly, its not that hard to rack up hours. i’ve only got 152 hours (okay i have the most out of everyone on my team so far) but that doesnt count hours i’ve spent working on the robot/chairmans award that i never really bothered to count.)
We look at meetings missed. We are fine with about 1 missed per week - maybe 2 every once in a while…
We are actually a few blocks away from the Silicon Valley regional, so everyone who wants to go can. However, we don’t consider you a member unless you have spent at least 15 hours into the robot, or anything related to the robot, such as administrative work, food runs, etc… 
For students to go to the “traveling” competitions (Purdue doesn’t count because its only 2hrs away , I’m talking about Virginia and Atlanta) they have to keep a daily journal. The Journal is checked weekly-ish and if you have contributed and been to 3/4 of all the meetings, you can travel.
For Purdue: if you have a pulse, we will get you up there. We are trying to get as many students, teachers and retired engineers up there as we can, because once you go to a regional … your hooked 