[ayeckley]

My employer is also the main sponsor of the team. They make a cash donation to the team and they cover my hotel expenses only. Frankly sometimes they treat me as if the sponsorship donation is a personal benefit, so I don't generally get the same rewards/recognition as coworkers who volunteer for one or two day things like science fairs. My solution has been to dissociate my personal support from the team from my employer's support, with limited success. I'm still generally known as "the mentor that [insert company name] provides". YMMV (hopefully).

Edit: Except for 2007, I have used my vacation time to attend regionals.