[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

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

Mike,
I love the questions.
Those are questions I hope would get answered as well.
If for some reason the sponsorship has gotten to a level that they are unable to help outside teams compete, then to me, FIRST has some serious sustainability issues with respect to competing outside your own local events.

The real issue that takes the cake now, is that FIRST will not accept Purchase Orders from public schools in Hawaii. Sorry, but our school (public schools) dont use credit cards to make payment in using school-level funding.
I spent so much time trying to do a roundabout method in getting our reg feeds paid in addition to helping other Hawaii public schools "trying" to participate in FIRST the last couple months....