New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

Has anyone heard about the New FRC grants for MI to start teams and pay coaches a $1500 stipend??

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

Yes.

Grant Announcement: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/md...s_431002_7.pdf

Grant Details: http://www.techplan.org/downloads/pd...4_105933_3.pdf

-Clinton-

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

$3,000,000 is a nice amount of money. Awesome!

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

An interesting bullet point:

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

Wow! Guess I never should have left Michigan 35 years ago...except I never would have been able help start The High Rollers:D Seriously though, kudos to those who helped convince their legislature of the benefits of supporting the FIRST mission. Hopefully the rest of us can use this as precedent for our state's movers and shakers in our efforts to "do the right thing".

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

That's amazing, will more FiM teams go out of state this year since they don't have to pay their initial registration fee?

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

That is awesome news and glad to see you folks pave the way for hopefully the rest of us!

Our state is currently in legislation about paying stipends to Middle School Academic program coaches.
That would qualify a lot of VEX programs in our State, including our school where we are a High/Intermediate.

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

Not only will they not have to pay their initial registration fee, it seems like they won't have to pay any registration fee.

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

Great news for southern Nevada teams regarding stipends, Glenn. We finally got our District (5th largest in the country) to offer $746 per semester to high school robotics advisers and $486 for middle school advisers per semester. We fought this battle for many years. Just goes to show you that persistence in life can pay off! Now if we can just get our legislators to follow the Michigan model...:D

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

That's awesome too!
Its about time academic advisors/coaches got paid something for all that they do!

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

WOW!

Looking at the details:

New teams can get $7,500.
Existing teams can get $5,000.

ALL teams that qualify for state, national, or world championships can get an entry fee.

For the District grants, the team must show 50% of the grant value in local sponsorship from 3rd parties (if I'm understanding this right)

There were 203 MI teams in 2013. 64 Qualified for MICMP, and 35 MI teams competed at CMP.

35 x $5000 (CMP Registration) = $175,000
64 x $4000 (MICMP Registration) = $256,000
203 x $5000 (District Registration) = $1,015,000

Total cost per season if it were to pay for EVERY veteran MI Team's District/MICMP/CMP registrations? $1,446,000.

This grant is supposed to last 3 years. It won't be paying for everyone's initial $5,000 registration, but it very well might pay for state and world championship entry fees for most of the MI teams each year.

Sweet deal. Way to go MI.

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

Just a reminder that the Grant Applications are available today via the MEGS+.

https://megs.mde.state.mi.us/megs/login.asp

There should be at least one person in every school district in Michigan that should have access.

Enjoy!

-Clinton-

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

Additional information about the Michigan Grant

House Bill No. 4228
Sponsored by: Bill Rogers

See page 50 - Sec. 99h: https://www.legislature.mi.gov/docum...13-PA-0060.pdf

Additional Information about the bill can be found here: https://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(1c...-4228&query=on

-Clinton-

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

Dear Michigan Grant Teams,

I hope you have started the process of trying to get your MDE grant through your school system. In my case I have run into numerous issues and the grant process has not been a "slam dunk."

Please don't wait until the last minute and miss this great opportunity. You may need to "bird dog" the grant until is submitted by your local school officials.

Looking forward to the 2014 FRC season,

Marc

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

I sat down with our district finance director the other day and had everything submitted in about 15 minutes. I would suggest that you get a face to face meeting with the person responsible for the submission, as there are some things that they might not know on the application. Nothing major, but just information about sponsors and contact numbers and addresses. Our district was excited about it because they are going to be supporting us beyond workspace for the first time.

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

I electronically submitted all the information, met with the grant submitter and have been "bird dogging" the grant applicaton since Oct 15th. The grant submitter is stumbling over the wording "hired a coach". Since my day job is an engineer, I am presently not "hired" by the school district and I am working through the "hiring process" presently. I am pretty sure I will not be able to jump through "all the hoops" to be "hired" before Nov 7th, thus losing out on the $5000 for team expenses and $1500 for coach pay.

Are you "already hired" as a coach or did your district finance director "overlook" or "not notice" this aspect of the grant?

BTW, I have made FIRST of Michigan aware of my condundrum. I think the issue can be resolved by changing the meaning of the word "hired" to "identified". I don't think many of the high varsity school coaches starting after January have been officially "hired" by their respective high schools, but, I could be wrong.

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

I am "hired" as I am a Vocationally Certified Teacher using Robotics as one of my CTSO's (Career and Technical Student Organizations). So I have other requirements to meet for my classroom funding, but as far as this is concerned robotics is officially part of my day job. Typically hired as a term should apply to volunteers as well because to volunteer at a public school you still have to go through all of the background check hoops and prove to be qualified to be working with students in the area you volunteer in.

I have found that if you talk to the Principal or the Superintendent and tell them that there is potential money available to fund a program that is often not supported by school districts, they will jump on that to be sure that they are showing support in ways that they are able. We receive no funding from our district, but this grant has been a way for our district to show that we are important to the student body and that what we do matters.

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

Dear CD,

I have received information from the state that on Monday, October 21st the grant wording will be changing from "hired" to "identified". When this happens, I believe this issue will be resolved. Looking forward to Monday to see the update.
Have a great weekend!

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

Do veteran teams require matching grant from another sponsor(s)? If so, will teams who have lost sponsors or have no sponsors be able to get this grant? Any info will be appreciated.

Marc thanks for following up with "hired" mentor, many of us are not school district staff.

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

Tungrus,
I would talk to Gail Albert (president, First of Michigan) for more information. I spoke with her about the grant, but not specifically your issue, and she spoke about "in kind" matching from the school system of which I didn't press for more information because it didn't impact me at the time but may help you.

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

Thanks Marc. My read about the 50% matching, it is not a requirement, it looks more like additional information. I may be wrong, hope this discussion will help others too.

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

We have discovered that in order to qualify for any of this grant money, participation on the team must qualify for school credit (i.e. credit hours) for the students. That is what the district employee that attempted to apply for the grant was told by her contact at the Dept of Education in Lansing. She made repeated attempts to clarify this, without success. As our team is not run under or connected with any day-school classes, there is no way to give students credit for participation at this time.

Has anyone else run into this?

There's no way to jump through all the hoops to give students credit for this year, but we are exploring getting this changed for next year.

Re: Revised Michigan Grants Informationfor FRC
 

Dear CD,

1) sdaustin - I would contact Gail Albert, president of FIRST of Michigan for help. Personally, I think the person you spoke with at the Michigan Department of Education is not correct and I would obtain her name for reference. If you think about it, that would most likely disallow nearly every team in Michigan and I don't think that was the intent of the MDE grant.

2) The Michigan Grant information has been modified to read the following:

The RFP has been updated – the third item down on http://www.techplan.org/rdi/
Direct link: http://www.techplan.org/downloads/al...5_162758_3.pdf

Ann-Marie Smith
Education Technology Specialist
Office of Education Improvement and Innovation
Michigan Department of Education
517-335-2775

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

If you run into any snags at all please contact me immediately.

Gail Alpert
248 425-4148

Or Ann Marie Smith at the Michigan Dept of ED
517-335-2775

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

Quick update:

We were finally able to apply for the grant. Many thanks to Gail and Ann Marie for their help.

The sticking point was that the grant states that the district has to be "willing" to offer students credit (elective, independent study, etc.) for participation on the team. For our district, this meant getting the curriculum director on board before the administration would apply for the grant. Thankfully, she was all for it.

Now we cross our fingers and wait...

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

Today is the big day! Can't wait to see how many great teams got helped out!

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

Is this the list of teams that received funding?

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

Yes - That is the list

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

This is what it looks like:

Rookies: $9,000
Veterans: $6,500
FTC: $1,500

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

Happy to see so many teams great helped out like that! I know we'll be using that money as a great help!!

Did you receive your MDE grant money?
 

Dear CD,

Michigan Grant Teams that attended the MSC event were reimbursed 8/11 of the $4000 registration fee on May 20th via state aid. The remaining amounts are returning June 20th, July 21st and August 20th.

Did you have a sponsor pay your MSC event fee? Do you know what account your local finance folks placed the state aid reimbursement for said sponsor? Was it in your local team account?

Re: New Michigan Grants for FRC
 

Dear CD,

Does this mean that Michigan has a second year of MDE grants (copied
and pasted from State of Michigan website - see second part 99H)?


STATE OF MICHIGAN 97TH LEGISLATURE REGULAR SESSION OF 2014
Introduced by Rep. Haveman
ENROLLED HOUSE BILL No. 4295
AN ACT to amend 1979 PA 94, entitled “An act to make appropriations to aid in the support of the public schools, the intermediate school districts, community colleges, and public universities of the state; to make appropriations for
certain other purposes relating to education; to provide for the disbursement

Sec. 99h. (1) From the appropriation in section 11, there is allocated an amount not to exceed $3,000,000.00 for
2013-2014 for competitive grants to districts that provide pupils in grades 7 to 12 with expanded opportunities to
improve mathematics, science, and technology skills by participating in events hosted by a science and technology
development program known as FIRST (for inspiration and recognition of science and technology) robotics.
(2) A district applying for a FIRST tech challenge or FIRST robotics competition program grant shall submit an
application in a form and manner determined by the department. To be eligible for a grant, a district shall demonstrate
in its application that the district has established a partnership for the purposes of the FIRST program with at least
1 sponsor, business entity, higher education institution, or technical school.
(3) The department shall distribute the grant funding under this section for the following purposes:
(a) Except as otherwise provided in subparagraph (iii), an amount estimated at $1,000,000.00 for grants to districts
to pay for stipends of $1,500.00 for 1 coach per team, distributed as follows:
(i) Not more than 500 stipends for coaches of high school teams, including existing teams.
(ii) Not more than 100 stipends for coaches of middle school or junior high teams, including existing teams.
(iii) If the requests for stipends exceed the numbers of stipends allowed under subparagraphs (i) and (ii), and if
there is funding remaining unspent under subdivisions (b) and (c), the department shall use that remaining unspent
funding for grants to districts to pay for additional stipends in a manner that expands the geographical distribution of
teams.
(b) An amount estimated at $1,000,000.00 for grants to districts for event registrations, materials, travel costs, and
other expenses associated with the preparation for and attendance at FIRST tech challenge and FIRST robotics
competitions. Each grant recipient shall provide a local match from other private or local funds for the funds received
under this subdivision equal to at least 50% of the costs of participating in an event. The department shall set maximum
grant amounts under this subdivision in a manner that maximizes the number of teams that will be able to receive
funding.
(c) An amount estimated at $1,000,000.00 for grants to districts for awards to teams that advance to the state and
world championship competitions. The department shall determine an equal amount per team for those teams that
advance to the state championship and a second equal award amount to those teams that advance to the world
championship.
(4) The funds allocated under this section are a work project appropriation, and any unexpended funds for 2013-2014
are carried forward into 2014-2015. The purpose of the work project is to continue to implement the projects described
under subsection (1). The estimated completion date of the work project is September 30, 2016.