Quote:
Originally Posted by Alpha Beta
0935 (2011) – earned but declined spots in 2010 and 2012
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We have some reasoning behind this actually. Each year, when RaileRobotics plans its budget in August for the season ahead, we determine how many regionals and/or nationals we will be attending and we stick to this budget. Nationals is always contingent on dollars and the amount of time missed from school. Getting invitations year after year and/or qualifying year after year puts a tremendous strain on our sponsors to generate an extra $15,000 minimum to attend nationals. Team 935, over the last three years, has committed extra resources (money, time, summer hours) to many projects, including the development an emergency response team robot in which we are just now completing and our LEGO summer camp for children. As a general rule, we try to go to nationals (budget pending qualification) every other year, not back to back.
Although Nationals is a blast to go to, we've observed that investing our resources into long-term projects teaches our students more about FIRST's ideals than attending a five-day event.