How many teams are supported by a Rotary club?

[richardyun]

Our team is making a presentation at a Rotary district conference and would like to give them an idea of how wide spread Rotary's support of FIRST is (FLL/FTC/FRC). Is there an easy way to search a database or the Blue Alliance and get a rough estimate? (e.g. is it tens, hundreds or thousands of FIRST teams which get support from their local Rotary Club?)

The hope is that we can get the larger Rotary International organization to be a supporter/partner of FIRST in general so that we can say to all teams, "talk to your local Rotary Club, they will have heard of FIRST and may be able to provide you with start up funds, contacts with businesses, contacts with potential mentors."

We would then also say to all Rotary Clubs, "This is a great program that needs your support, not only with some seed money but more importantly with some help and mentorship to build technical leadership and business skills"

The attractiveness of such a partnership is that Rotary clubs are all over the world and in most small towns and cities, making them a great contact point for teams who are not located near a large city or corporation.

So if anyone else knows how we can get some information on the involvement to date, that would be great.

[Liam Fay]

I unfortunately do not know an efficient way to get raw data on that. But I can tell you that many high performing teams do: BumbleB, Pink Team, Citrus Circuits, and RUSH to name a few. You can probably lead those you are presenting to to draw conclusions from the success of these teams with the involvement of rotaries.

[JohnBoucher]

237

[Basel A]

Just doing a search through team sponsor lists for 2016, here's a list of all the teams that definitely listed a Rotary Club as a sponsor:

346
379
488
702
1246
1359
1378
1678
1684
1831
1908
2085
2165
2169
2980
3160
3206
3238
3344
3596
3619
3658
3688
3932
3955
3970
4151
4203
4265
4283
4343
4627
4835
4932
4943
4946
5015
5288
5324
5422
5524
5585
5660
5710
6193


There are a number of additional teams that might have a Rotary Club sponsor. These teams had "Rotary" in their sponsor list, which likely means a Rotary Club but you can't be sure. For example, Team 27 listed "Clarkston Rotary" where Clarkston is the city they're from. Here's a list of those extra teams:

27
233
360
399
492
701
836
1014
1323
1432
1585
1718
2106
2465
2471
2551
2638
2827
2903
3009
3145
3184
3339
3360
3374
3575
3617
3618
3826
4130
4171
4450
4855
5090
5136
5216
5254

[Tom Line]

One of our sponsors is rotary.

[tim-tim]

Confirm 836 gets support from our local Rotary Club

[jdunston94]

3357 originally at the beginning of the season was not but when we went around before worlds to find additional sponsors a rotary club here in grand rapids came through huge for us. Long winded i know but yes 3357 was last season.

[FrankJ]

Rotary club is a great resource. The First mission on the team level and their outreach is a great fit. Not only financial but networking, possible mentors, and services.

[Gdeaver]

We are not sponsored by the Rotary. However, we have presented to the Rotary at one of their dinners. While we do not get money directly from them, this gave us access and exposure to the movers and shakers in the community.
Consider at least presenting to them.

[yarden.saa]

BumbleB 3339 is proud to be supported by local Roatary Club in our city (Rotary Kfar-Yona)

[Squillo]

Yes, we are usually supported by at least one of our local Rotary Clubs. (We are on the second, "not sure" list posted above.)

We have at times received financial support from 3 or 4 different local clubs. We just received a grant from one, spoke to another and will be sending them a follow-up letter, and are hoping to speak to a third soon. Our local clubs love to see the kids and the robots!

[MooreteP]

The Windsor/Windsor Locks Rotary club has supported FIRST Robotics in Windsor Connecticut for over 15 years.

Their Four-Way Test is very much inline with the principles of FIRST

Is it the truth?
Is it fair to all concerned?
Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

[Bmarshall645]

We have a local rotary club as a sponsor.

[Amit3339]

As mentioned above, team 3339 is also being supported by a rotary club.

[Bob Potts]

4130 receives support from our local Rotary.

[Nathan Streeter]

1519 also receives support from our local Rotary club. I believe we've been supported by the Milford Rotary every since our founding, and even back to 2003/2004 when we were an FLL team trying to raise money to travel to the World Championship.

[The_BEVR]

Team 4778 does receive support from our local Rotary Club.

[D.gimon]

Team 5324 from Haliburton, Ontario gets amazing support from our local chapter of Rotary.

Dan

[Rosiebotboss]

839 is supported by the Rotary, a small monetary contribution each year, but more importantly, it has given us exposure to companies and organizations that we have leveraged into more significant sponsorships and a Paul Harris Fellow.

[NickKerstens]

Confirmed that 4343 is supported by the Rotary club of Aurora!

[ehochstein]

Back in 2012/2013 FRC 3081 was supported by the Bloomington Noon Rotary club - I went and presented about FIRST on their behalf while they demoed their robot.

[Landonh12]

Team 364 is also sponsored by a local rotary club.

[mathking]

1014 is supported by the Dublin AM Rotary club. We have been since our first year. In addition, three of our Rotary supporters have been and remain central to the development first of the Central Ohio Robotics Initiative, which was formed to get teams in more schools in central Ohio. They were the driving force to establish the Central Ohio Robotics Invitational, now in its 7th year. The CORI organization is now the Center Of Robotics Innovation (under the PAST Foundation umbrella) and part of what was OHIO FIRST and is now WOW (Western PA, Ohio, West Virginia) a group which is working to promote FIRST across the region. The rotary members are leaders in this effort. It is not at all an exaggeration to say that without their support 1014 would not have survived the early years (particularly years 2-4 when it was just me running the team) without their aid. There certainly would be no off season CORI event and it seems likely that the efforts to pursue a WOW district would not be as far along as they are now.

[TNT280Staff]

We are sponsored by our local Rotary and have also received funds from Rotary International in the past.