growingSTEMS

The mandatory meeting schedule varies throughout the year. Generally, during the off-season, the meeting schedule looks like below.

During the build and competition season, the scheduled meetings increase dramatically.

Additional meetings may be scheduled to support technical communities and IPTs. Please pay attention to Slack to better understand what alternative meeting times may pop up.

A normal team meeting lasts from 6 PM to 9 PM. During this time, students are expected to work in small groups, with mentors, to accomplish specific tasking. Typically, these small groups will be either their technical communities or their IPTs.

At the end of the meeting, during the last ~15 minutes, students are expected to stop work and clean up their work areas. Students are responsible for leaving a clean workspace prior to leaving the facility. While the mentors will assist the students in ensuring that the facility is left in an appropriate state, it is not the responsibility of the mentors to clean up student messes.

While we technically cannot prevent students from leaving the facility prior to leaving a clean workspace, students should remember that failing to clean up will negatively affect their teammates. A continued failure to clean the facility prior to leaving will result in earlier clean-up times and a general loss of privileges.

Attendance is an important aspect of our organization. It is difficult for students to learn or be inspired when they are not at team meetings. We are fortunate to have dedicated mentors who are willing to donate countless hours to work with our students, so we expect them to put in some hours too.

Historically, we have stated that students are expected to attend 85% of the mandatory team meetings during the season. This number was based on the number of meetings a student attends divided by the number of meetings that require a student’s attendance. Excused absences were included in the 15% absence rate and were not counted as a meeting attended.

Currently, we do not have a firm attendance percentage that each student is expected to meet. We recognize, especially in the off-season, that students do have obligations outside the team and flexibility is encouraged. However, the expectation is that students will make a consistent and conscious effort to attend all meetings and will participate fully. This is especially true during the build and competition seasons, when every student has at least one major responsibility to the success of the team. Students who miss a required meeting will be expected to make up any time to ensure that they do not fall behind. Therefore, students should make every effort to attend as many meetings as they can.

Each student's level of participation is commensurate to the responsibilities and benefits that they are afforded on the team. Students who are consistently unable to attend meetings will not be asked to serve in leadership positions on the team and they may not be invited to attend competitions. These are natural consequences of the lack of attendance and are not intended to be punitive. The team simply cannot afford to have students participate in certain activities and roles if they are unable to consistently participate in the overall team.

Participation in the team also extends beyond time in the shop. Student, returning students especially, are expected to support the team outreach, public relations, and fundraising activities that take place outside the meetings. The RoboBees are about more than what happens at meetings and about more than just robots. Throughout the year, the team hosts external events including demonstrations, STEM booths, community service events, team dinners, etc. We believe that this part of the season is just as important as, if not more important than, the actual robot build. Therefore, it is required that students attend at least five of these events each year. Normal meetings, the kick-off event, and competitions do not count toward the five-team events.

Team members who cannot make a planned team meeting will notify their responsible team mentor/volunteer. For FRC, this can be done by sending a message in #frc_attendance. This should be done prior to the start of the meeting. Sending a message that you will not be able to attend a meeting after that meeting concludes is not particularly helpful. If you do not send a message, a mentor or student lead will likely reach out to you to better understand why you were unable to attend a team meeting.

Students are expected to arrive on time for the meetings and to stay for the entirety of their session. Students are not permitted to leave the facility during a meeting unless approved by a mentor.

In the past, we have had students tell their parents that they were going to robotics but then leave early to engage in other unrelated behavior, such as hanging out with other friends unbeknownst to their parents. This is entirely unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Should something happen, this could easily negatively affect the team, the mentors, or the overall organization.

No team member is dismissed from a team meeting until the work is complete and the work area is completely clean. Barring certain emergencies, it is not acceptable to leave your workspace a mess.

Mentors will often stay as late as a student wishes to stay (and is appropriate). However, this is not guaranteed. Sometimes The Hive needs to close immediately after a meeting. Unless it is arranged ahead of time, students should either depart or be picked up from meetings in a timely fashion; Mentors are required to wait until all students have departed the facility before they can depart and we are not a babysitting service.

Team members are expected to promptly and appropriately sign in and out of the entry log system when arriving and departing the facility. They can do this by entering their entry code at any of the keypads at the boundary doors (i.e., lobby door, side door), swiping their growingSTEMS ID card at the lobby door, or using the web interface when connected to the growingSTEMS network.