Meetings (September to April): 

• Minimum twice a week: Wednesday 4 to 6 pm, Saturday 9 to noon

• This is the minimum required and not sufficient to qualify for Worlds. The robotics room is usually open every evening after 5 pm and all day Saturday/Sunday for team members to work on the robot or other tasks.

• Team members regularly spend extra time in the weeks leading to tournaments

• Some work can also be done at home such as CAD or work on the portfolio

• The team meets in a house in Pleasant Grove. 

Attendance: 

• Team members are required to attend the kickoff event on September 7th (all day). Location to be announced but this will be local.

• Team members are expected to attend all scheduled meetings outside of school breaks (Fall break, Thanksgiving, and Christmas break). 

• Meetings will still happen during school breaks but we understand that team members may be out of town. 

• We usually take advantage of days school is out (MLK day, Presidents' Day, teacher work day....) to schedule additional meetings especially if this falls right before a tournament.

• Absences need to be communicated in advance so the team can plan.

• Our team is competitive, robotics needs to be your #1 extra-curricular activity. 

• We can accommodate a Fall sport but Spring is much harder to handle since this is when most tournaments are. 

• Most of the team schedule is known far enough in advance so team members with a job are expected to arrange their work schedule so that it does not interfere with meetings, tournaments, and outreach activities. When a last-minute opportunity arises we understand that team members may not be able to adjust their work schedule. 

• Team members may have to miss school dances if they are on the same day as a tournament. This year Pleasant Grove High School prom was during the week the team was in Houston for the FIRST Championship.

Communication:

• Team members are expected to communicate absences in advance to coaches and/or team leadership

• Information for tournaments is sent through emails to team members and parents

• Team members will be added to a group text for quick communication such as last minutes changes or reminders (parents can be added too if desired)

• Team members can also join the team Discord server (parents are welcome too) which is used to share robot ideas and resources. 

• We also recommend (but do not require) that team members join the Utah FTC server and the Unofficial FIRST Tech Challenge server (worldwide FTC community)

Tournaments: 

• Team members are required to attend in-season tournaments: 

  • 2-3 qualifiers in Utah (usually local, but it is possible that we will decide to attend one in Hurricane)

  • Utah State championship (we expect that this will be in Midvale)

  • Extra State championship (Idaho is the most likely but other states are always a possibility). Team members will need to miss school on Friday. 

  • World's championship if we qualify - Houston, TX. This is a full-week tournament and the team will travel from Sunday to Sunday. 

Off-season (April to August):

• We still meet at least weekly during the off-season. We understand that people will miss during the summer just communicate with the teams when this happens

• Unless they are out of town, team members are expected to attend the Wasatch Mountain Invitational in Provo since our team is part of the organization

• The team may consider attending an out-of-state invitational tournament, this is 100% optional. 

• Most outreach events take place in the off-season and team members are expected to attend at least 50% of outreach events. 

Finances: 

• Team members are expected to contribute $250 toward the team budget (if this is an issue please come talk to us)

• This does not cover the entire budget for the year so team members are expected to help raise additional funds by helping apply for grants, organizing kids' robotics camp, bake sale, reaching out to possible sponsors...

• The team covers the costs for tournaments (including overnight housing as necessary) up to the State championships out of the regular team budget. 

• The cost to attend the FIRST Championship in Houston, if the team qualifies, is separate and parents are responsible for their team member's travel costs. The past 2 years we were able to raise a little over $5000 to offset the cost and everyone paid about $500-$600 to cover travel, housing, food, rental cars... for a week in Houston.

Parents involvement:

• We welcome parents' involvement with the team, you do not need to be technical to help. 

• As much as possible coaches and mentors will provide transportation to tournaments and other events, however parents may occasionally be asked to help drive. 

• Teenagers love to eat :-) We love it when parents refill the snack supply in the robotics room.