Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon Stratis
Didn't Michigan have some special rookie Grant thing last year that boosted their numbers up a ton? Could that have accounted for some of the initial increase? I know many rookie teams apply for the NASA Grant or others that don't come in until later, so they have to sit around and wait to see if they'll have money before registering. Having a group that knows they have money before things get started would boost initial numbers.
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Late rookie registration is often due to teams that are waiting to hear if they have received a grant or not. In WA we have a grant from the state that for rookies that is in the amount of $7000 which did not close until last Thur. Typically it takes a week or more for that grant to be approved and the applicants to receive notice that they will be awarded the grant. Then they have to complete some steps to claim the grant and wait some more until they actually receive the funds.
There is always a issue on deciding when to have the grant deadline. I've found that I typically have a very hard time getting responses from those who might want to start a team until school has been in session for a couple of weeks. So if you have the deadline early enough that they will be notified that they have the grant before first event registration and you'll be eliminating many potential rookies. I always tell the potential teams that are on my radar to go ahead, register a team and register for an event even if they don't know if they will receive funding since the worst that will happen if they don't pay the registration fee is that they will loose their spot. Despite this many do not even begin team registration until they have the cash in hand.