As of now our robotics team is within tech club at our school. Tech club consists of multiple teams doing different things. Next year we want to make Robotics its own club. How do your clubs work? Does everyone compete? We have many ideas but advice from people in existing robotics clubs on how they operate their club would be great!
For my team to start a club, we had to go to the office to receive information as to how to create a club. We got guided to the office of the one who organizes the clubs, in which he/she would hand you a form to fill out. Generally, you would need a sponsor, or a person willing to host the club and supervise it before the form can be accepted for approval. If you get accepted or approved of, IMMEDIATELY ask if a club can receive funding. If the school says yes and they will provide funding to your club, then you should be green light. If they say no, I would heavily suggest getting funds/sponsorships from organizations that are willing to provide findings to your club. In terms as to why I am not associated with my school in terms of my robotics team is because the school denied me the funding, despite them promising to fund it beforehand.
Our club is in existence to compete, so yes everyone in our club competes.
Although I am not associated with a club, I would believe that everyone would go to every competition, and I think it would be useful to implement a system to have a limit of amount of absences from competitions otherwise they will be kicked out of the club if it’s too many. This way you ensure that the teams who are in the club are those who are motivated and willing to put forth effort towards the club and team. I would suggest allowing every member to decide the team they want to be part of, so they get their own opportunity to grow and collaborate with the people they work best with. I also believe a hierarchy would be beneficial where there are team leaders, and the leaders are following the manager/leader of the club of the robotics team. This would also promote motivation so those who wish to be leaders will have to work from the ground up, and know there’s more to work towards.