[cbale2000]

Years ago when our team was a bit bigger and before FiM reduced the cost of travel so drastically we had students pay their own travel costs but those costs could be offset by participation in a fundraiser or by meeting attendance.

Our sponsor liaison mentor had arranged that the team would keep track of each members hours, and based on the hours a member put in, our sponsor would offset the cost of travel for that member. This meant that a team member who put in like 150+ hours essentially got to travel free of charge, and acted as a good incentive to get students to show up and participate.


Since the implementation of the FiM District structure, travel costs have dropped substantially and our team has gotten smaller to the point where the team simply covers the cost to rent Vans and buy lunch for everyone (Students just pay for Breakfast/Dinner and any snacks).
As an example of the cost difference, this year was the first time in 4 years our team had to pay for hotel rooms because all the other events we attended were close enough to commute to every day, even then the team covered the cost because of how much we had saved up to attend states (and then didn't qualify).