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There are a number of reasons teams drop out, it can really be anything. My team has what I believe is a very non-typical situation that is making things very difficult to date.
Our problem is not funding, our problem is not lack of interest, or lack of engineers... Our problem is our high school's administration. The town our team is in is so caught up in politics and legalities (and on top of that, extreme lack of organization and communication), it is becoming vitually impossible to accomplish anything. We literally have funding for all non-travel expenses. It is in the opinion of most everyone on the team that students will be responsible for their own travel expenses, however those expenses will be offset by team fundraisers and any corporate sponsorship we receive through March. First, they tried to block travel to Toronto. Then, our main teacher became ill and may not be able to participate this season, so the administration is complaining we will have no one to open the lab and that teachers should not have to put in hours after school. So we went out and found some other teachers in the community who are excited they can help out -- after hours. They still don't get it. Next, they complain that student travel expenses are not covered. Their reasoning is: What if there is a student who cannot afford to go? Well, apparantly, from this view, it is better for no one to go than for most to go. I should also mention that the school district refuses to provide any funding at all. So we come up with another solution. Our team will have a pool of money that can be used to pay for any students who sign up for the team and let us know well ahead of time that they cannot afford the trips. I can't wait to see their dissappointed faces when they find out we overcame another one of their technicalities and to see they throw in our way next. One of the administrators was furious last year when our team appeared on the front page of the paper. One of the parents on the team was yelled at because the administration thought that we were "going to the papers" to gain support for our team. They complain that there aren't enough women/minority on the team, but that's exactly part of the purpose of FIRST and what we're trying to do. They're the one's blocking us.
FIRST is great, but the politics of school systems is rediculous. It's as if they don't care about the student's interests at all, but rather their own personal quests for power in the community.
I think it's these types of things that end up killing teams. They won't succeed in killing my team.
Patrick
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