A FIRST Warning From VA

[Joe Matt]

As anyone in Richmond area can attest to, we are in trouble with FIRST. MAJOR trouble. We hare around 7 teams in less than a 30 mile radius, and we arn't a very huge city nor a big technology industry. We are suffering.

One of 384's main sponsors folded this summer, and quite a few other team sponsors are dropping like flies. Many funds are now dry that used to contribute money, and many teams have nothing this year.

Why am I saying this? Because I want to warn you. While FIRST growth is needed, not like this. I'm not surprised if a few teams fold this year, that's how bad it is. PLEASE don't follow our mistake. PLEASE don't expand to the breaking point. Consolidate teams, pool funds. PLEASE do it. PLEASE.

I'm deathly afraid that FIRST's downfall will be it's own expansion and high prices. Please FIRST and the FIRST Community, listen to our problems. I doubt that this will be the last problem here.

[Bill Gold]

Can you merge a few teams together for a year or so, and try to secure enough funding to eventually spin them off as their original team? This is a good way to keep schools involved in FIRST when they're about to fold. It's also a good way to cut costs drastically (2 teams entering one event each costs $10,000 total, whereas one team comprised of two different teams attending 1 event costs $5,000 or even attending 2 events costs $9,000. ). Just a thought. Good luck.

[Erin Rapacki]

Similar thing happend in Boston, there was a rookie team from the Roxbury last year. This year, they merged with the BU team so they can secure funding and interest. I think it would be very benificial to the FIRST program to think of quality and not quantity when it comes to the amount of teams involved. The point of FIRST is to get as many STUDENTS involved as who want to be, not to have thousands of suffering, understaffed teams.

[ChrisH]

In the Southern California area, the teams in SCRRF made a deliberate decision not to pursue new rookie teams this year. A few are starting anyway, but we didn't go out of our way to drag them in. We felt it was better to work on the foundation of our existing teams and strengthen them. Once most current teams are fairly stable, and we have adequate support for the Southern California Regional, then we will pursue rookies again. Besides, it's not like we had to work hard to fill our regional slots.

Sometimes it pays to rest and consolidate your gains.

[Gabriel]

Originally posted by Erin Rapacki
The point of FIRST is to get as many STUDENTS involved as who want to be, not to have thousands of suffering, understaffed teams.

I've always wondered how those teams with 150 kids can possibly function. Even on the teams i've been with (25 people or less) it dwindles down to a core group of maybe 8. I don't think FIRST has any effect whatsoever if you've got an engineer and five kids building a robot and 100 groupies.

I remember back in 2001 we started a FIRST team in Hartford and another team offered to let us join. They said "maybe your kids will get on some key committees or something, we'll see" but it sounded to me like they just wanted us to watch and learn.

We didn't take the offer because we weren't willing to invest the time and effort on a team if the only thing we got to do was make t-shirts. Yes, FIRST involves all sorts of non-engineering jobs, but there are a hell of a lot better, more interesting, more creative and less expensive ways for kids to get experience in video, business, creative writing, than a robotics competition. Besides, how do you inspire kids by saying "Yeah, we want you to work on this great project, but we don't want you to actually work on it, we want you to sit around and watch us work on it, and if you're really lucky we'll let you use the button maker."

Here's an example: last year I suggested a controversial strategy and was promptly flamed to a crisp. The leader of one large, well-established team said something along the lines of "what am I supposed to tell the engineers I've got sleeping on the floor for weeks..." I was curious how much student involvement was possible on a team where engineers were literally sleeping on the floor, so I made it a point to check that team out at nationals. I spoke to several students and they all told me the same thing "we didn't get to do anything or learn anything, we just talked for awhile and one day they showed up to a meeting with a robot." The students were uniformly frustrated with their team and felt that they got nothing out of the program other than a line on a resume. The adult mentors I spoke to were oblivious.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it isn't important HOW many students you've got involved, its what they do, what they learn and how they feel about the program that matters. Those thousands of understaffed struggling teams may not produce the best robots and they probably won't win too many chairman's awards but I think that they give kids a much better experience than the big teams.

I'm not trying to attack big teams or their leaders, many of them are very good people. I just want to say that as the leader of one of those "understaffed, struggling teams" I think we provide a pretty good experience.

[Madison]

Originally posted by Gabriel
I've always wondered how those teams with 150 kids can possibly function. Even on the teams i've been with (25 people or less) it dwindles down to a core group of maybe 8. I don't think FIRST has any effect whatsoever if you've got an engineer and five kids building a robot and 100 groupies.

Your post addresses two issues, but the second has been beaten to death twice.

I don't think it's our place to determine who benefits from FIRST or how they benefit. If people are making a commitment to be there, in whole or in part, as groupies or something else entirely, that's their prerogative. Just because we don't understand the potential benefit this program is having on them because they're not just like us doesn't mean that it's not having a benefit.

[KenWittlief]

I emphasize with Joseph M about the loss of support for teams in your area. I can understand why you are upset.

I dont think its fair to any sponsor to expect them to continue to support a FIRST team for more than one year at a time.

For a corporate sponsor being involved with a FIRST team is a community service, a way to give something back to the people in your area, a way to invest in your future.

But we have to accept that individual companies dont always prosper, dont always make a profit - some dont even stay in business!

If you have a corporate sponsor this year, be thankfull and gratefull, and hope for the best for next year. I dont see any reason to be upset with FIRST for allowing the program to expand too fast, allowing too many new teams

?!

how could FIRST possibly tell a company that wants to be a sponsor no! ? Would we demand that they put up money for 3 or 5 years before we allow them to start a team? Would we hold them responsible to find a replacement sponsor if they are no longer able?

Ive seen several corporations over the years go through a downturn, and lay off MANY employees, and still keep sponsoring their FIRST team. In fact I know of one that kept its team under wraps, kept it secret as much as they could (no media coverage, ect) so that people who had lost their jobs would not have to deal with the idea of the company spending money on highschool students, instead of keeping them on as employees.

If a high school and a sponsor are able to get together for one year, and have a team for one year, I think thats wonderful. If they are not able to do it again the following year, that will not take away anything from the experience those students had when they were on the team.

There are no guarentees in life. Cherish what you have while you have it. None of us knows what tomorrow will bring.

[Amanda Morrison]

Dean may have asked that every high school in America be involved with FIRST, but he never said they all had to have separate high schools.

[SarahB]

Originally posted by Gabriel
Besides, how do you inspire kids by saying "Yeah, we want you to work on this great project, but we don't want you to actually work on it, we want you to sit around and watch us work on it, and if you're really lucky we'll let you use the button maker."


That can be a problem on any team, big or small. I know some teams with 25 people on the whole team, and even fewer(<15) at each meeting who work that way. They believe that one should just watch and "learn" until he/she has been on the team for a few years. I don't really agree with this strategy, but it isn't just limited to big teams.

[Gary Dillard]

Our mentors have debated these questions before, as to splitting up and sponsoring a rookie team, or combining resources with the nearest team. Some background:

Team 180 (SPAM) is in Martin County, FL where there are only 2 high schools, 15 minutes drive apart (3 next year) and no single big company for a sponsor. We have been supported by UTC/Pratt & Whitney since the beginning - they are the largest employer around but they are located in Palm Beach County to the south. The local P&W plant has faithfully sponsored 2 teams (Swamp Thing in Palm Beach County is the other) each year, even though employment has gone from about 8000 7 years ago to probably less than 1000 now since the engine business moved to Hartford. Most of the engineers on the team worked at Pratt at one time and now work elsewhere locally.

I believe that our sponsorship continues because of enthusiastic support from specific managers both locally and at UTC corporation (Dr. John Cassidy whom I saw at Nationals) who believe in the FIRST program. You've got to have a champion at the sponsor.

We aggressively pursue other sponsors and community support to keep growing the program, and each year we make critical decisions before all the funding is in place (as most teams do). But our decisions always have one focus - how do we reach the most kids with our available resources.

I must admit I'm jealous of the big teams who have engineers and machinists paid to support FIRST during the seaon. We don't have that luxury - we have a limit to our available time and take vacation days and it puts a pretty heavy burden on our families. So even if money wasn't a limit, manpower would be. There's no way we could support more than 1 team here, but we can sure reach more kids and we make every effort to do that. Our team is about 50/50 between the 2 schools and that's been true every year.

Splitting into 2 teams to get "credit" for growth is the wrong type of growth, as would creating a rookie team at the new school instead of including them with us. I think we've had the right balance - splitting the team would get us below critical mass for an inspirational program; combining resources with Swamp Thing would put too much strain on the kids in travel. We've grown each year and reached as many kids as possible.

Focus on the kids, not the teams.

[Tytus Gerrish]

Originally posted by Gary Dillard
Our mentors have debated these questions before, as to splitting up and sponsoring a rookie team, or combining resources with the nearest team. Some background:

Team 180 (SPAM) is in Martin County, FL where there are only 2 high schools, 15 minutes drive apart (3 next year) and no single big company for a sponsor. We have been supported by UTC/Pratt & Whitney since the beginning - they are the largest employer around but they are located in Palm Beach County to the south. The local P&W plant has faithfully sponsored 2 teams (Swamp Thing in Palm Beach County is the other) each year, even though employment has gone from about 8000 7 years ago to probably less than 1000 now since the engine business moved to Hartford. Most of the engineers on the team worked at Pratt at one time and now work elsewhere locally.

I believe that our sponsorship continues because of enthusiastic support from specific managers both locally and at UTC corporation (Dr. John Cassidy whom I saw at Nationals) who believe in the FIRST program. You've got to have a champion at the sponsor.

We aggressively pursue other sponsors and community support to keep growing the program, and each year we make critical decisions before all the funding is in place (as most teams do). But our decisions always have one focus - how do we reach the most kids with our available resources.

I must admit I'm jealous of the big teams who have engineers and machinists paid to support FIRST during the seaon. We don't have that luxury - we have a limit to our available time and take vacation days and it puts a pretty heavy burden on our families. So even if money wasn't a limit, manpower would be. There's no way we could support more than 1 team here, but we can sure reach more kids and we make every effort to do that. Our team is about 50/50 between the 2 schools and that's been true every year.

Splitting into 2 teams to get "credit" for growth is the wrong type of growth, as would creating a rookie team at the new school instead of including them with us. I think we've had the right balance - splitting the team would get us below critical mass for an inspirational program; combining resources with Swamp Thing would put too much strain on the kids in travel. We've grown each year and reached as many kids as possible.

Focus on the kids, not the teams.

:Tear: I love you Pratt&Whitney

[Jeff Waegelin]

Originally posted by Amanda Morrison
Dean may have asked that every high school in America be involved with FIRST, but he never said they all had to have separate high schools.

Exactly. I don't think there's enough corporate support for every high school in America to have its own team, but I think there is enough for every high school to have a local team its students can be a part of. There may come a point (and it has apparently come in some areas) where teams will need to branch out to include more schools and students, rather than starting completely new teams.

[KenWittlief]

I disagree - once you have a local regional you can have a team for less than $10,000 a year

for a business that is not a lot of money. Im sure there are far more businesses in any given area than there are highschools.

If not then you really NEED FIRST in your area! :^)

[Gabriel]

JosephM - I just noticed that your sig is the Apple Manifesto! Probably my favorite piece of corporate propaganda. Its great to see some Mac users in FIRST.

[Squirrelrock]

As anyone in Richmond area can attest to, we are in trouble with FIRST. MAJOR trouble. We hare around 7 teams in less than a 30 mile radius, and we arn't a very huge city nor a big technology industry. We are suffering.
I'm deathly afraid that FIRST's downfall will be it's own expansion and high prices. Please FIRST and the FIRST Community, listen to our problems. I doubt that this will be the last problem here.

As a member of 617 (in the richmond area[highland springs, for those who care]), I agree. Each year, finding the same amount of $$ to keep us going is hard enough. What with losing a sponsor this year, and having the entrance fees go up $1,000, we probably wouldn't have a team this year if it weren't for Verizon. As it is now, we barely have enough for the spare parts limit for the year (assuming it stays at the same level as last year). I can only hope that more companies will help pick up the tab for more teams, or that teams get really good at fundraisers really quickly :o .

Verizon is awesome!

<edit>
It really sucks if you have had a next-to-free machine shop for years, and then they drop you. that may have happened to us, we can't tell yet, but we're preparing for the worst while hoping for the best.

BUT WEST END MACHINE AND WELDING IS THE BEST!
</edit>

[phrontist]

Here in NoVa we seem to be flush with cash, and while I used to be gung-ho about starting teams at nearby schools, this post has made me reconsider. There is really very little incentive for expansion, as it only cuts into your funding. This is why FIRST can't be everywhere.

[LBK Rules]

Unless a miracle occurs, our team is not going to compete this year. Still need about $3500 before Friday, and that's with an emergency grant. (And that means we won't be able to use pneumatics, since we sold our compressor last year. :( )

Squirrelrock, were going to have to use your team's idea about an open-house for next year. It seems to work.

[Ken Patton]

There is a group called the Greater Richmond Technology Council who says on their website (www.richtech.com) the following:

"The Greater Richmond Technology Council is a member-driven association of businesses and organizations working together to ensure the continued growth of Central Virginia's dynamic technology-based economy. The Council includes both Technology and Associate members dedicated to the development of an infrastructure that supports the growth of existing technology industries and identifies the Greater Richmond region as a location of choice for new and emerging technology companies."

They list many companies and organizations (it looked like a couple of hundred names) who might make good $$ sponsors.

Are you sure you have really tapped out the region?

hth,
Ken

[sammy]

Unless a miracle occurs, our team is not going to compete this year. Still need about $3500 before Friday, and that's with an emergency grant. (And that means we won't be able to use pneumatics, since we sold our compressor last year. :( )

Squirrelrock, were going to have to use your team's idea about an open-house for next year. It seems to work.


Do you really need it by tomorrow, or do you need to have it secured? I'm a VCU student and a FIRST volunteer, and I am certainly willing to help some Richmond teams put together a fundraising campaign. Talk to other local teams, and maybe we can hold a Richmond FIRST meeting here on campus or at a local high school to see what can be done. I wish I'd noticed this sooner or maybe we could have gotten things together sooner.

Just because your team can't be independent this year doesn't mean that the dedicated people on the team can't still be invovled in robot building, designing, etc. you just have to work together with other teams.

[Joe Matt]

Do you really need it by tomorrow, or do you need to have it secured? I'm a VCU student and a FIRST volunteer, and I am certainly willing to help some Richmond teams put together a fundraising campaign. Talk to other local teams, and maybe we can hold a Richmond FIRST meeting here on campus or at a local high school to see what can be done. I wish I'd noticed this sooner or maybe we could have gotten things together sooner.

Just because your team can't be independent this year doesn't mean that the dedicated people on the team can't still be invovled in robot building, designing, etc. you just have to work together with other teams.
local richmond team's meeting, eh? not a bad idea at all. mabey we could get the new teams in too. anyone else interested? we can host. i'll bring cookies! ;)

[LBK Rules]

Do you really need it by tomorrow, or do you need to have it secured? I'm a VCU student and a FIRST volunteer, and I am certainly willing to help some Richmond teams put together a fundraising campaign. Talk to other local teams, and maybe we can hold a Richmond FIRST meeting here on campus or at a local high school to see what can be done. I wish I'd noticed this sooner or maybe we could have gotten things together sooner.

Just because your team can't be independent this year doesn't mean that the dedicated people on the team can't still be invovled in robot building, designing, etc. you just have to work together with other teams.
Unless we can find somebody to front the funds, we can't compete.

I agree with JosephM: I like your ideas. We would have to get a list of competing teams in the area and see which ones would be able to incorporate. I wouldn't feel so bad about not competing this year if there weren't people on our team that won't qualify as students next year. :(

[scitobor 617]

I've always wondered how those teams with 150 kids can possibly function. Even on the teams i've been with (25 people or less) it dwindles down to a core group of maybe 8. I don't think FIRST has any effect whatsoever if you've got an engineer and five kids building a robot and 100 groupies.

This is the exact same effect we have witnessed on my team, a core team develops. To try and keep all members involved we are always trying to reorganize the team to be more effiecent and keep all of us students involved.

local richmond team's meeting, eh? not a bad idea at all. mabey we could get the new teams in too. anyone else interested? we can host. i'll bring cookies!

A Richmond team meeting sounds awesome! Maybe we could collaborate to help needy teams find funding by hosting a joint FIRST open house.

[Joe Matt]

This is the exact same effect we have witnessed on my team, a core team develops. To try and keep all members involved we are always trying to reorganize the team to be more effiecent and keep all of us students involved.



A Richmond team meeting sounds awesome! Maybe we could collaborate to help needy teams find funding by hosting a joint FIRST open house.
Throw me an email at 384matt@henrico.gaggle.net if you'd like to participate. I'll send a note to my supervisor and lets see what we can do.

[jrocket567]

We all need to get together and do something to raise more funds.. btw.. what sponsor did you lose.. juts attempting to compare notes and see whos helping who this year...Ken, thanks for your input, but I know 617 has attempted to contact all of the resources in our area.. we recently hosted an "open house", and invited over 100 people from different technological and engineering fieds to come and see our program, and the Center for Engineering (a division within the school/county).. it did ok, but were still short a couple grand, especially since were attemting to go to Annapolis along with VCU this year.. after the season is over (sorry guys, but i think it may be a little late for getting over 10k for this year) we need to get together and get a city-wide fundraiser going. good luck, hopefully see you at VCU in March!
JP
VP Engineering/Design/Fabrication
Team 617

[SURVIVORfan44]

From team 616, we have a little bit of conflict as well. We used to be the team that had no other teams around our area. This year, we now have a new team that is near us. Therefore, we lost a mentor or two, and there are not that many sponsors to chose from. Each year, it is a struggle for teams everywhere to get sponsors and now, our struggle to get sponsors have increased. We will come through somehow though, I hope :)

[LBK Rules]

T-15 Minutes to D-Hour and still not paid.

Oh, well. We tried.

EDIT:

It's over...

(Must not cry, Must not cry, Must not cry, :( )

[Joe Matt]

T-15 Minutes to D-Hour and still not paid.

Oh, well. We tried.

EDIT:

It's over...

(Must not cry, Must not cry, Must not cry, :( )
Send me an email bud, lets get you on 384. :)

[Dick Linn]

I'm a mentor for Team 975 (James River). We're all for consolidating, and have had one or two Richmond-area schools join us in the past. Unfortunately Midlothian high split off this year and I'm not sure about St. Christophers. Let's all keep in touch and see how we can manage this. There must be at least 5 teams in Chesterfield County alone. Three of these are within a 10 minute drive of each other.

[Dick Linn]

Make that 19 or 20 TEAMS! I didn't see St. Michael's in this year's list for the VCU Regional. This came from the FIRST site of teams registered for the 2005 VCU event.

346 L.C. Bird - Chesterfield
384 Tucker - Richmond
405 Richmond Community High School & Richmond Public School & Richmond Community High School
414 Hermitage Tech. Center - Richmond
416 Armstrong - Richmond
422 Maggie Walker - Richmond
539 Trinity - Richmond
540 VCU/Henrico Education Foundation - Richmond
638 Clover Hill - Midlothian
975 James River - Midlothian
1033 - Benedictine - Richmond
1093 Collegiate - Richmond
1172 Richmond Tech Center - Richmond
1222 ???
1467 Home School Robotice - Chesterfield
1522 Hanover High - Mechanicsville
1530 Thomas Jefferson - Richmond
1541 Midlothian High - Midlothian
1545 Freeman High - Richmond
1599 Atlee - Mechanicsville

[Joe Matt]

You forgot 1086, they are in Richmond too.

[Fe_Will]

Here in Oregon we have come together into what we call FIRST Force. 7 teams that share ideas and fund raise as a group. The Force goes to larger companies (HP in our case) and asks for support. It is great. The teams came together and did a scrimmage last spring in their parking lot for the employees. And this fall they made it happen...


Anywhere there is more than one team in an area this is the way to do it.

[JamesCH95]

My team, #95, gets students from 5 highschools plus homeschooled kids, we have about 18 kids in total, myself included, and 6 engineers, all from different companies. Job or school boundaries shouldn't mean anyhting in FIRST. As for funding... all of our funding was pulled, as well as our workspace. We had nothing as of June, but after asking around about who knows who in local companies, we scraped up $9.5k and workspace in a little under 2 months. Don't loose hope fellow FIRST teams, just rally together and work hard.

[nukemknight]

Joseph - Do you know of any huge VA company that would be willing to help out multiple teams? (I was thinking Dominion VA Power.) With this being a rural area and already having sponsorship from the only large company around here it is hard to find other businesses or people willing to sponsor us even though we placed second at VCU this year. A rookie team starting less than 15 minutes away from us and FIRST raising entry fees didn't help either.

[NotaNerd]

Very interesting warning. In Northern Virginia, we experienced a similar problem where there are so many teams in such a concentrated area that fund raising was nearly impossible. We eventually had to turn to our own school as one of our main sources of fund raising. It's very hard in First populated cities to keep a team going. We almost did not make the entry fee this year and may have folded after one year. As far as I am concerned, I think that FIRST should regulate team formation. Even though spreading the program is a good thing, sometimes there are just too many teams in one area. Therefore, if a school wanted to start a new team in an already crowded area, FIRST would say no. While this seems to be hindering the creative potential of many students, that school should then seek to join in an alliance with another school and form a two school team. This would cuts down on the number of students not participating at all. FIRST should definitely consider a system like this.

[suneel112]

The quest for funding really can be a quest, and it is generally a required for Robotics in general. But I agree that there is a difference between a quest and mission impossible. Pretty soon, at an exponential growth rate, FIRST prices may end up being a significant portion of the American (and International, at that) Economy. In addition, there has been a recession, and although it is getting better, it is doing that at a VERY SLOW pace. This takes away profits that could otherwise go to teams. It is very sad that this is happening, because teams suffer and fold because of it. I think it is time for massive government funding of the FIRST program, to rescue teams like 384 that are really suffering. I agree that this is one (although the ONLY) downside of FIRST.

[Joe Matt]

The quest for funding really can be a quest, and it is generally a required for Robotics in general. But I agree that there is a difference between a quest and mission impossible. Pretty soon, at an exponential growth rate, FIRST prices may end up being a significant portion of the American (and International, at that) Economy. In addition, there has been a recession, and although it is getting better, it is doing that at a VERY SLOW pace. This takes away profits that could otherwise go to teams. It is very sad that this is happening, because teams suffer and fold because of it. I think it is time for massive government funding of the FIRST program, to rescue teams like 384 that are really suffering. I agree that this is one (although the ONLY) downside of FIRST.

384 is not suffering by any measure, but many local teams are. Just want to clarify that.

[tkwetzel]

...I think it is time for massive government funding of the FIRST program...

I think they are funding us already through something known as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

[LBK Rules]

So, what are other teams that didn't make it doing this year?

I think we'll be having some sort of para-FIRST comp, and working on 3ds max.

[bombadier337]

Team 1541 had a great season, we loved every minute of it. We are from Midlothian High School, and I feel that starting a team here was a great move for us. We exposed the FIRST program to a whole new audience, myself included, who would not have gotten into it had it not been for the new team. We worked really hard to fundraise, we had a massive aluminum can drive and brought in close to 3000 pounds worth of cans. We also got a good amount of sponsors, mostly through parents and friends. Basically, all I'm saying is FIRST has definately changed my life, and if my school hadn't started a team I would never have been a part of it.

[DRH2o]

I guess we are lucky at George Washington High School in Danville. I first started looking into FIRST in the mid 90's but knew funding would be an issue for this area at that time. As time has passed and things evolved I was approached by the Superintendent and Director of Gifted Resources to do an enrichment program after school dealing with robotics and knew that FIRST was the ticket. We have had a great build season and look forward to VCU. Our team is mentored by 5 teachers and the Work Services Coordinator from the school. We have not gotten any outside help or sought any outside funding. The district officials seem to be very excited about what we have done and the effect it has had on these students. If all School Districts would or could help in this way it would be great and take the pressure off outside funding sources when times are tight.

[Gene F]

As I read through this thread it occurred to me. This is like a business that has only one customer. When that one customer stops buying, the company folds. Answer to the problem, get more customers. Some teams are very lucky to have a single sponsor that can meet their fincial needs. The problem comes when that sponsor can't continue to support them; the team folds. The answer is get more sponsors. For a team or business to have a long range future it needs to have a broad support base. All the money doesn't have to 9in fact shouldn't) come from one place. Get out and beat the pavement a little and you'll find that there are a lot of smaller companies willing to pick up part of the bill. Build a relationship with your community. Show them that in order to have technically capable people to fill their jobs they need to be supporting organizations like FIRST. Don't take this as bragging but during robot season we get the community involved. Many of the local businesses post "Go Robotics Team 343" on billboards outside their place of business. Places like McDonnalds, the Local Auto Parts Store. The Boat Dealer, etc. Our team is not sponsored by a single company it is sponsored by what we call "The Oconee County Business Partnership". Sure it's more work but if your goal is to have the team live on then just like in business you need to work to diversify you income base.

[fnsnet]

As nukemknight said, their is a new team 15 mins away. That's the Franklin team I sponsor. nukemknight is from team 616, in Courtland. 616 didn't participate this year because of a lot of complicated politics that I don't feel like explaining... but part of the problem was corporate funds in the area.

The big business around here is small potatoes compared to some of the other localities that other teams are in. With the creation of the Franklin team, the available funds were cut in half and both teams suffered last year. This year the teams wanted to merge together in order to put the corporate funds together and push their team forward. This failed due to the politics I spoke about earlier and 616 is the one that noticeably suffered. Not to say that 1610 didn't suffer. They lost the mentors that 616 was bringing to the table as well as the additional students to assist in the work load and the experience with FIRST that came with them.

I believe that every high school ought to be involved in FIRST, that's not to say they have to have their own team. If you're team finds itself close to another team, you ought to work together toward the common goal. Which isn't winning, it's learning. Hopefully the school boards in this neck of the woods will learn that before next year's season.