Re: $500 to go, one week
 

Our team did this in 2009. At the end of the season, we were somewhere between 1 and 2 grand in debt to our school... :eek: This year, then, we managed to pay it off, and what's more end up with a slight surplus, with some revamped fundraising and not having to pay ridiculous rent on our new build space. So I would look into that, and make it a backup plan.

And yes, FRCTeams@usfirst.org is the contact Eric was referring to (I don't believe it's case sensitive, unless perhaps Unix has something to do with...)

Re: $500 to go, one week
 

I have to agree with this as well. Its that whole positive reinforcement aspect, where you reward good actions not punish bad ones.

The students that fundraise and are helping the team should be rewarded with something that other students would desire. Maybe they get their own set of allen wrenches, or some other tool. Maybe they get sweatshirts or some kind of swag. Whatever it is, reward the good work some students have done, and hopefully the other students will want to be apart of that too.

As for money:
A lot of good suggestions have been made already. $500 in perspective is not a lot to fundraise for your team. You guys are actually in a pretty decent position compared to some teams I know of.

You don't need to scoop up $500 in one shot, try to organize some quick and simple fundraisers like a car wash or bake sale, and you'll be surprised at how big a chunk you can take out of that goal.


Good Luck!

-Brando

Re: $500 to go, one week
 

I know some teams do not condone of this, but I know it has worked for us in the past.

We have a Team Credit Card (Actually I believe it belongs to a Mentor, though I'm not sure) that we can use in a pinch. With an amount like $500 that's easy enough to put on a Credit Card to make Registration and then spend the next week or three fundraising to make it back. As long as you use it with the intention of extending your fundraising deadline you should be alright, but don't look at it as free money.

Re: $500 to go, one week
 

I wholeheartedly agree that pulling the old switcheroo on your teammates is NOT the appropriate response. While it may feel good, or feel like the right thing to do, that will do nothing but create negative feelings for your team. Not to mention that you have publicly discussed this with people in a public forum, meaning it is very easy for your teammates to find this thread and put two-and-two together.

As far as how to get your non-producing teammates to get to work, you should attempt to do other fundraising opportunities besides going to businesses. I know that personally, I have a hard time going up to people I don't know and asking for money. I tend to do it anyway when needed, but with great stress and discomfort that I would not wish on anyone. Perhaps push for more "sweat equity" fundraisers, such as bake sales, car washes etc.

Additionally, because you are so close to your goal, I would suggest soliciting an activity fee from your members. While I have no idea how many people are on your team, if one were to assume an average team of 15 people, its only $33.33 (repeating of course) per person, which IMHO is pretty reasonable. I also would suggest seeing if your school would let you overdraw on your account for a short period of time. However, only do this if you actually intend to get the money to pay them back! Going into debt to your school will hurt you in the long run if not paid off, like when you get that $5000 check from one of your sponsors, only to find out its really $3000 because of the money you owe the school.

Re: $500 to go, one week
 

Trust is something that is earned over time with honesty and integrity.

A trusted mentor will not remain trusted for very long if he abuses that trust by lying to his students to punish them.

Just my $0.02

Re: $500 to go, one week
 

On further reflection, using the approach I suggested above would not be appropriate. There is a much better approach to doing the same thing: the "because of/in spite of" approach.

In this case, we'll assume that the money is raised on time. At the next team meeting, someone says something to the effect of, "Because of students X, Y, and Z, we have raised enough to register (in spite of the lack of action of some other (unspecified) students). The amount we had to raise was $A/student; X, Y, and Z raised $B/student, while the rest averaged $C/student. Because of this level of fundraising, X, Y, and Z will have key roles at competition, especially if they continue their activity level." [insert your favorite version of TANSTAAFL here, if desired]

The negative version follows the same lines, except that it's "In spite of the effort put forth by X, Y, and Z, we were unable to register (because of the lack of effort put forth by everybody else), etc." I really hope that this does not have to be used.

The other thing is that it's possible that parents don't want their students to be selling things/fundraising door-to-door/things of that nature. That's fine, but it's a lot better if the team management is informed of this beforehand so that plans can be made around it. Some parents are like that.

Re: $500 to go, one week
 

On a team, not everyone needs to be equal in everything. I believe that most students have a talent that can be utilized. If you believe that certain students aren't pulling their weight by fundraising, then have them do some other task that they more suited for or are willing to do. As stated before, there are many reasons students won't fundraise, so unless you know the facts, don't assume.

When I was a teenager, I was terribly shy and would NEVER have been able to approach a business and ask them for money. If I was in a organization like FIRST (and I was a teenager in the Dark Ages, where there weren't many opportunities like that, especially for girls), hopefully I would have found another way to contribute.

Re: $500 to go, one week
 

Thanks for the replies guys.

We stated at our last meeting a pizza party will be held for those who have made an obvious attempt (as in, somehow got money for us) at fund raising. This will be paid for by myself and the teams other captain.

I'm writing up a letter for the kids to take home to their parents, that simply states that $30 per kid at this point will get us in (30x20ish kids=600). I'm stating it as an 'entrance fee' for the kids and can be paid for out of the kid fund raising, getting sponsorships, or the parents/kid paying for it. I think its simple enough to do.

Next week for 3 or so days we have a table in our schools lunch room (school of ~1500) where we will do a "Hey, drive a robot for a dollar!" with a goal and everything set up (worked well at back to school night) as well as selling hexbugs (crabs, ants, and nanos)

As for the credit thing, I never thought of that and it is completely possible for us. Our one mentor pays for the hexbugs with his personal credit card and when we make enough to pay him back, we do. He just put in $400 for us on hexbugs, and if we make that back fast enough he is willing to buy more. I can see if I can possibly get him to put in the $500 if we get it back for him.

THANK YOU so much guys

Still 500 to go

Re: $500 to go, one week
 

In the future, make it easy on yourself. Simply tell everyone up front that the cost will be divided evenly among the team members to enter. So if you have 30 team members, then about 5000/30 = entry fee. Then, from there, tell them that every dollar they can bring in will go to paying them back. The dedicated kids will end up having a free robotics experience, and the non-dedicated ones will be more motivated to either fund raise, or leave....

Re: $500 to go, one week
 

We just got two $100 donations from two of our students family, which is awesome.

And yeah, I told them each how much they need to raise. Didn't do much though.

We had 1,000 left over from last year, and 2,500 or something like that from HTEA. I stated very clearly that 1,500/20=75 per student, and...very few hit that number.

Re: $500 to go, one week
 

A lot of teams do the pay to play format and do they whatever you achieve in fundraising is just paying you back. The key to this is that you follow through with the result. If a member doesn't fundraise or pay the $100 then they are off the team.

Because my team is traveling, my students were informed that it would cost them $500 to do all the travel or $200 for the interstate travel. If they don't participate at all in the effort then that shows their lack of committment to the team. That is not wanted on this team and they are removed from the team. If they try to raise the funds or pay the money themself, then that shows their committment to the team and they get to participate.

Now, I know some of you are going to say; "What about those students that family can't afford the funds?". I say tuff, several students and every mentor puts in lots of hours for this team. Your family doesn't have to pay any money as long as they help in the fundraising effort. It works, my team might not have reached their goals but at least they have hit the businesses and tried. Most have them have showed a level of committment by their effort. Those that have not will not be participating on this years team.

Re: $500 to go, one week
 

I see that a lot of teams have students approach businesses for donations. Do you have any system in place to prevent one business from being hit too many times?

Re: $500 to go, one week
 

Keep a list. If a business is on the list, don't hit them because they've already been talked to (unless they've been hit up a month ago and showed interest, but nothing's happened since, when someone, ideally the student who talked to them originally, gets to ask them about status.)

Re: $500 to go, one week
 

We just got over $1,300 in just one day :D were in!

Re: $500 to go, one week
 

Mind telling how you raised $1300 in a day?

Our team is in a similar situation, (except we need about $4000...)