Dcarr,
Thank you for the post, I think we will be seeing in the near future many more team in hardship due to loss of money rather than loss of space due to the economy, obviously that is a personal opinion.
I am currently working with an organization that is sponsoring a robotics team and what we are trying to figure out is a "step program" where every year we give less money, so that we help the team begin thinking on ways to "be ready to act quickly". I agree that take as much as you can, but my caveat is that have a plan to become self-sufficient by a certain period specially on the money side, since in the facility side, worst comes to worst we can always work in the garage of somebody, while on the financial side if we don't get the money the teams usually fold unless a brave soul decides to take a "loan out" in which I highly do not recommend. I have seem mentors put it on credit card in the hope for getting reimbursed in the future.
From a group of 10 teams, usually I have less than 4 teams doing summer camps to raise money for their teams.
Cheers,
Mark.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dcarr
While I'm sure these grants are limited in availability, NASA and others do have 'hardship grants' to help out. I feel for teams who are put in situations like this.
I think the bottom line should be, graciously take as much as you can get (both facilities and money) and be ready to act quickly should you lose either.
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