[pwnageNick]

2949 has always been a community team. In 2010, we needed a lot of money and we needed a place to work. All we had was a very small warehouse that was really just a storage space for VEX/FTC stuff and our supplies. We went out looking, and we found a company called Genesis Automation in St. Charles, IL. Not only did they give us a large space to work, including a very large machine shop, they became our main source for mentorship as well as sponsorship. They have been extremely gracious to us and we are very thankful. There one of the main reasons that we have been as successful as we have over the last 3 years. Now we got pretty lucky to find a company that provided work space, mentorship, and sponsorship. Having said that, you never know what you might find asking different companies for any of those 3 things. Just last year at one of the festivals we were at, we talked to a guy that ran a company called ACE Metal that did sheet metal fabrication. He looked at our 2011 robot, which had just a little amount of sheet metal on the drive frame, and said "oh, that's easy. We could do that no problem. The following season we built 2 robots for the first time because of him and the entire thing was sheet metal, which cut down on cost and design time for us. Just contact as many people business people, primarily engineering/manufacturing, as possible and hopefully you'll find some things that will pull you through.

As far as being a community team, I am a big fan of this setup. No limit as to where your students have to come from, much easier to spread FIRST in your community, and you don't have to deal with school administration, just your own team organization.

I guess that's my input.

-Nick