Quote:
Originally Posted by PayneTrain
Maybe rookie registration is low this year because we're running out of schools to bomb with a few thousand dollars and then leave alone until they either survive or crumble?
You know what's hard? Starting a rookie FRC team.
You know what's harder? Keeping an FRC team alive for 4 years.
You know what's seemingly impossible? Trying to restart an FRC team somewhere where it failed but should not have, years after it folded.
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Agreed.
Rookies aside, FRC isn't an easy program to sustain if you are tight on funds/mentor availability which is why we see so many veteran teams leave. Over the years New Hampshire has lost numerous FRC teams including some of our perennial top teams. Many of them are still involved in robotics but through other programs like Vex which makes it hard to restart the program because the school still offers robotics but through a much cheaper program that requires significantly less manpower by mentors/teachers. Some of them weren't just "box on wheel"/rookie teams. In 2011 team 40 Checkmate moved from FRC to Vex along with team 241 the Astros. A year later 134 made the change as well.
Playing with big robots through FIRST is a commitment of funds and time by mentors & students. You either one or have a big drop in any one of them and you are forced to either fold or consider different options (FTC, VEX, Best, etc).
The point of this blog post is a really good one though. Our team has been working more and more with young teams either entering their rookie season or continuing into their veteran years to strengthen both their program and ours. We have a few roads to pursue starting teams in our area in the future but for now we focus more on relationships in our area. Sadly though I wish the Chairmans criteria wasn't so centered on starting FIRST teams.