[pfreivald]

While I agree that the discussion is inherently political and pretending otherwise is a bit silly, I'll let that go to say this:

I'm inclined to agree that the focus should be on sustainability, and not expansion.

Our non-profit has created two FRC teams in three years, one of which fell apart after one year due to reasons that had nothing to do with money or build space or even mentors, while the other is going strong and building wonderfully. Invite parents and students from other schools into your team for a year, or two, or three, or five. When they are ready -- with experienced mentors and students, eager sponsors, build space, tools, etc, spin them off into their own team where they can recruit a bunch of rookies from their own school/town/community.

If I were a betting man, I'd wager that this kind of organic growth will in the long run be much more successful than showing up at a school with a pile of money and saying, "Hey, who wants to build robots?"

The current method is a bit too Darwinian for my tastes.