I am a senior on Kevin's team. I've driven at Northern Lights, Midwest, Championships and Milwaukee. I have never attended a district event.
What I really would like to understand and don't is what exactly happens to the money from registration fees for regionals.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin Kolodziej
The cost of a regional event is completely funded by the regional planning committee and none of the cost is covered by registration fees (I am on the WI planning committee).
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I understand that building/transporting the field costs money and hiring staff costs money, but my understanding is that regionals are almost completely volunteer-run. I understand the kits cost money, but there's less and less useful material in there every year. This year, there were precious few pneumatic components(they were available in FIRST choice, but my understanding is that that stuff is donated). And its also my understanding is a lot of that KOP stuff is donated as well... most of the vouchers, 8 denso throttle motors, IGUS bag, etc.
I understand the new control system costs money, but I can buy one on andymark for 770$, not 5000$. And even after that, the second event cost is 4000$ extra, you can't even think about including the kit in that, and that money appears to go straight to FIRST.
It seems to me that it doesn't cost FIRST much more to run a regional than to run a district, so why are teams being charged more for them? I suppose it creates an incentive to go to districts, which works in some areas but not in others. What happens to the Turkish teams I meet at Midwest after the last affordable North American air hub goes to districts?(not saying the last affordable hub is Chicago, but the plan seems to be districts everywhere)
From what I've gleamed from team budgets, much of the travel budget isn't registration, but is instead travel and lodging. Sparsely populated areas with no events nearby can afford one travel event, and thats it. How can we expect them to afford to travel twice under the district model?