[eedoga]

I am not sure I envy your having to do this. Explain FIRST in a few minutes? Not sure it is possible. The really hard part is getting them to see the true benefits of FIRST. Sure you can bring a robot, but most people won't really understand what goes into making one. Your team number seams really low, so hopefully you have some "FIRST / FRC changed my life type kids." Have some former students, the type of kids who were the first in their family to go to college and are now engineers, Some Girls who were told that they weren't good at math, or just any kid who has gone through FIRST...Get those kids and have them put together a short talk about what FIRST has done for them. If you don't have time for that then get a video together and pass out a DVD with all of that on there...

As for your question, My team is in Washington, Our state super intendent has a budget line for FRC teams. They give grants of a few thousand dollars based on applications showing how the money will be used.

Not sure if this helps you. I hope it does.

Edoga