[Ankit S.]

I also agree with going to two regionals.

With that second regional, you have a chance to see more robots, different robots, and different designs. Those different designs might be what fuel you to make a different drivetrain. If one team has an innovative drivetrain, but goes to a regional thats far from your home, than you may lose the chance of seeing that drivetrain.

Also, many teams do better in their second regional than their first. Going to a second regional may keep the motivation higher if you do very well in your second regional.

One thing you could do is have the students pay for travel expenses and food; that is what our team does for our "away" regional.

This way you wont need to spend 7000 on that second regional, only ~4000. Thats an extra 3000 dollars in the bag.

If you do manage to get at least 12-15k as your budget this year, you should be going to that second regional.

As for leaving behind a legacy of CAD and design and prototyping, start teaching the team how to CAD, and start fully designing before fabrication.

Good luck.