My team and I just had a competition on Saturday and I asked for feedback from judges on the fact that we have two notebooks at this point so far. I didn’t know if they wanted them bound together somehow or if being separate from each other was okay. They told me that they hadn’t realized immediately that they belonged to one team and that I should try to add something like a rubber band to the notebook. They said that once they figured it out, it was all good, but for simplicity to add something.
With this, I have posed this question: What are some good ways to bind two or more notebooks? They recommended rubber bands, but I feel that’s unprofessional. Any other ideas I have thought of are either really weird or really unwieldy.
I think in this situation, a binder is a really nice idea. Last season I used a binder to gather my multiple engineering notebooks together with, and it worked really well for me and my team. It protected the engineering notebooks and kept everything organized in one place. With this being said, I would definitely recommend using a binder!
Also, if your engineering notebook doesn’t have the holes for being placed in a binder, then you could also try placing them together in big ziplock bags, as was recommended to me. I think that’s also a great way to keep the engineering notebooks protected as well as keeping it organized in one place.
When my teams used bound engineering books we used giant rubberbands to group them together. You can get them at Walmart or any office supply store. We also used Velcro one year, but honestly, I think the rubberbands were simpler and just as professional looking. It also helps to have VOLUME 1 and VOLUME 2 (etc) in large print on the front (in addition to your team name/number). Custom vinyl stickers work great for this- you might know someone with a Cricut machine who can help you make them