Problems with our school
 

Hello everyone,

We are Team 1726 in Sierra Vista, AZ. We are a rookie team, and so we are facing all the usual prolems rookies have. But we are espically fed up with our district. For us to order any parts, whatsoever, we have to first contact the business, get them to fill out forms and be approved, then make out an order with a copy of the catalog pages and every little discription, and then send the order to the distrcit office, wait for them to approve it and send it off. It's a week into the competiton, and none of our orders have been sent off. Is there anyone who has any advice or has run into similar problems at their school?

Thomas Brown
Team 1726

Re: Problems with our school
 

Will they reimburse individuals who buy things for the team?

Re: Problems with our school
 

Does your school district entirely sponsor your team, or do you have corporate sponsors as well? If you do not have corporate sponsors, looking into finding a few may be a good idea. This way, if a company gives you XXX amount of dollars, you can use this money to purchase parts instead of trying to get through all the red tape in a school district.

Re: Problems with our school
 

I agree, have a mentor order it, send it to their house and try to avoid having to do it the way you are now?

Re: Problems with our school
 

If this is the schools first experience with this, then you need to educate them. The traditional "school" business models will not work. As was suggested, see if they will reimburse from receipts, or see if an outside sponsor will purchase for you.
You need to impress on them that if you don't ship on the 02/21/06 that's it. You cannot compete.

Re: Problems with our school
 

We have to set up a PO with the school for the particular company before we can order from them. As I understand it, it can take a week to get a new company set up. After we set it up though, we don't have to turn in any paperwork before we order. We still have to turn in paperwork on what we ordered, but without the lag.

Call and talk to them. If there are other ways to do this they (the finance people you are sending your paperwork to) would be the ones who would know.


Wetzel

Re: Problems with our school
 

We have a few corporate sponsors, but our school wanted us to have all of our money go through them. We just recieved a grant, and we are probably just going to cash the check and then order it outside the school (but don't tell them that).