[EricH]

Originally Posted by The_ShamWOW88

Are the parents/guardians of said students willing to allow said students the time required?

How much parent/guardian involvement/interest do you have?

IMO, this is probably the #1 most important question set. It might fall to #2, but only behind the mentor commitment level long-term.

And the reason for that is this: If one of the other aspects fails, and the parents are behind the team, they can and will do as much as they can (and/or assist the students to do as much as they can) to keep the team alive for another year. If the parents are not involved, the team will fold very easily if one of the other legs (mentor or funding) is yanked.

I am willing to bet that of the FRC teams that have folded over the years, the vast majority did not have their parents supporting them. Probably most of the rest had "minimal support" and a shallow mentor base.