[JamesCH95]

I have a little advice for a few of your concerns.

If your original parent HS is threatening to cut funding it wouldn't hurt to search for other options, ideally a home where the admin will go out of their way to find you extra funding because they believe in your team's mission as much as you do. Our current home, at a local vo-tech center, is such a place.

Grant applications (local companies as well as the big ones) and fund raising request letters got us enough money to attend two regional events and champs last year. We used to do other things like selling concessions, selling light bulbs, raffles, etc. These events would take a large amount of effort to coordinate and execute and result in relatively little income. The hardest part of letter writing is to identify all potentially interested companies. In-person follow-ups can improve your return if needed. Don't think of it as 'asking for money,' think of it as 'selling advertising space' on your robot (hat thousands of people see and may be televised, on your team's t-shirts, on your team's website, etc. Show the potential sponsor that sponsoring your team is good for them for more than philanthropy's sake.

We try to train new mentors along side students during preseason. This includes training former students on how to be mentors because this is a tough transition. We pick an interesting pre-season project, then break the students and mentors into small groups with a specific task, then they work together to complete their task, and then everything is integrated together. I have found that learning for the sake of a short-term goal (like CAD'ing a part needed in an hour or in a week) is far more engaging than learning something abstract because it might be used in 4 months (like going through SolidWorks tutorials in October because in January you might need to CAD part). It also breaks down the rather intimidating task of designing and building a robot into manageable chunks, which keeps students and new mentors from being intimated by it. Being able to check off short-term goals also provides a sense of accomplishment, which keeps students engaged and returning to meetings.

You are not alone. Also, try to take the long view on things: it's unlikely that everything will be the way you want it this year, or next year, or even four years from now.

Literally none of my mentors were still with 95 when I came back from college to coach, maybe 8-10 of them were lost due to retirement, job changes, moving, personal/professional commitments, mostly harmless reasons. About 50-60 totals years of FRC experience was gone as well all of our access to machining and fab space. We built our next robot with hand tools in a classroom and could only attend one regional. Four seasons later we have a great home in a HS vo-tech shop and CAD lab, attended two regionals and champs, and won our first regional since 2001! I have been exactly in your shoes before, and I am sure you will be able to turn things around, but it will take time. I would suggest being careful and deliberate at this stage, you are essentially rebuilding the foundation of your team, and it must be robust and sustainable if it is going to endure.