Quote:
Originally Posted by waialua359
Airbills dont come in the KOPs anymore. We put in an official request for exemption now, buts its very very limited vs. the support that we used to get.
I see this as a serious problem down the road, one that everyone knows is coming. As more and more events become district events, maybe its time to retire from FIRST. The costs are just too expensive to sustain. A $4-5,000 one way shipment from a mainland regional event back to Hawaii matches regional costs at this point.
At some point we ourselves are going to question whether the return on the learning experiences is worth that much money.
One of the reasons, we hate being from Hawaii.
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Question: A few years back (2008), when each team was getting FedEx donations and shipping their robots to/from competition, how many shipments was FedEx sponsoring? I could guesstimate around 3750 airbills used (1500 Teams x 2.5 Average Airbills per team). (We got up to three free shipments back then, right?)
Now, with the default being bag and tag, how many Airbills does FedEx sponsor? I'm guessing 1800 tops (800 to/from CMP + 500 overseas/traveling teams x 2 airbill exemptions)
It seems like FedEx has nearly halved their sponsorship, is this correct? From what I remember, we went to bag and tag because the increased shipping costs were unsustainable. However, it seems like FedEx sponsorship has taken a sharp turn in the opposite direction. Didn't they win the Championship sponsor/partner award a few years ago? Has their Sponsor level with FIRST gone down in recent years?
Don't get me wrong, I am very appreciative of FedEx's long standing support of FRC. I just wish they would cut some slack to teams that can't compete locally.
-Mike