Confused mentor about grants for "kits?"
 

So, I'm pretty new to FRC and seeing several grants that can be applied to "registration and kits." Does this generally just mean the KoP that comes with registration? Or are there other kits you can order through TIMS if you get multiple "registration and kits" grants deposited into your FIRST account?

Re: Confused mentor about grants for "kits?"
 

You had it right the first time--the only kit is the FRC Kit of Parts. Other grants that go into your account can pay for additional event registrations (or, in some cases, be regranted back to your team).

Re: Confused mentor about grants for "kits?"
 

Good luck and post often when you have questions!

Re: Confused mentor about grants for "kits?"
 

Rats, that's what I figured it would be. Well, maybe some of these grants will allow regrants. :)

Re: Confused mentor about grants for "kits?"
 

You may also be talking about the emails regarding the Voucher deadline that was yesterday. The Voucher is an option as part of the Kit of Parts in which your teams opts out of receiving the Drive Base Kit component of the KOP (last year it was the AM14U3 a roughly $600 value) for a $450 Voucher to be spent on AndyMark.com. As a rookie team, I would highly recommend against doing this in general, but as the deadline was yesterday you probably are already set to receive the Drive Kit.

Good Luck this season!

Re: Confused mentor about grants for "kits?"
 

The regrant process is a little slow. It has to go to a registered non-profit IE 501-c or school. Regranting to a school has its own issues since you have to follow the school's accounting process to actually use the money. (A 501-C will have rules also, but generally not as complicated, nothing about competitive bids and preferred vendors.)

Re: Confused mentor about grants for "kits?"
 

Rookies automatically receive the KOP Chassis. They are not allowed to Opt Out. As a former mentor of a team without a lot of resources, the KOP Chassis will also allow you to focus on manipulating game objects, rather than trying to figure out both a chassis and manipulation within 6 weeks.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am an AndyMark employee.

Re: Confused mentor about grants for "kits?"
 

We're a school. Yeah, it's painful and slow. We've been weighing putting together a 501c or something similar. It would be great if we could do something through ParentBoosterUSA and regrant into it (I've heard a lot of good about PBUSA), but I doubt we could regrant to anything other than the school account.