The subcommittee on Membership had to establish criteria for team membership and maintain all the forms and correspondences necessary to carry out the league’s communications. It was decided that any secondary school in Oakland County was eligible to buy a kit of materials and send one team to compete in the league; it was left to the individual teams to determine their own criteria for selecting team members. A nonrefundable entrance fee of $2,400 was set and an application procedure (that included an invoice for the kit expense) was created. (See Appendix Q.)
Communication with potential member schools as well as existing league members was the responsibility of this subcommittee. Once contact people were identified for all member teams, mass e-mailings provided a quick and effective way to carry on communications. Still, hundreds of phone hours were logged to get things arranged for OCCRA, so do not underestimate the time required for intra-league communications. A sign-up sheet was passed around at meetings so that all people interested in serving on subcommittees could sign up. A directory of all committee members was e-mailed to all who signed up and updated regularly. Each person willing to help organize the league was asked to sign up for a subcommittee; subcommittees were asked to select a chairperson to run meetings and report back regularly to the committee-of-the-whole.
(See Appendix E for a sample of the letter sent to all schools announcing the league kick-off.)