If student members of Team A are not members of Team B, then isn't the budget limit for two collaborating teams building identical robots a limiting problem?
Under R16 of 2012:
The Bill of Materials cost of each non-KOP item must be calculated based on the unit fair market value for the material and/or labor, except for labor provided by team members (including sponsor employees who are members of the team) and shipping.
If it is agreed that student members of Team A can not be considered student members of Team B, then the labor provided by
students of Team B that are not employees of the sponsor of Team A must be calculated at fair market value.
The 2012 Budget Constraint rules seem to require that the shared student efforts of two teams who are not on the member-rosters of both teams, must be small, that is:
(TeamB_student_hours * FMV_shop_rate) << (robotA_Value).
With a typical $100 shop rate, the total student hours that one team can offer another would be limited to a few tens of hours.
I might have missed an exclusion in the rules this year about a budget exclusion for student labor to other teams. I recall such an exclusion in a prior year, but I didn't see one this year.
Does R16 limit the student collaboration of two teams whose members are not on both teams rosters?
Any thoughts?