[sanddrag]

At our regionals this year, several people came up to me and said "Wow, you have a lot of sponsors, you guys must have a lot of money" or "Wow, you have a trailer, you must have a lot of money" or "You guys have a CNC? Your school must be rich." We do okay, but in reality, it's not as much as anyone thinks, and plenty of teams with mediocre robots and pit areas are running larger budgets than ours. If we happened to qualify for Championship, we wouldn't have been able to afford to go. If any one of our major sponsors dropped out, it would be a real hit to our budget. I was mostly okay with it, because most of the people making these comments were nice about it, and saying it in a more complimentary fashion. However, it does show that speculation forms without having the facts.

My favorite was "How do we make our team be like your team?" That's the sort of question everyone should be asking of these so-called "elite" or "powerhouse" teams.