[Brian Maher]

Originally Posted by Ari423

My team was in the exact situation you are describing. We weren't sure if we would make it to the MAR DCMP this year, as we were right on the line of acceptance. We haven't made it in a long time (probably around 5-6 years) so we didn't budget for the $4000 attendance fee. After the last district competition in week 6, when we realized we were going to be invited, we were extatic. That lasted for about an hour, before we realized we didn't have the money to attend and payment was due that Wednesday. Three days is not enough time to raise $4000 from sponsors. Thankfully after some begging and crying our school gave us some money and members asked their families to donate so we were able to raise what we needed to attend (I think we ended up submitting the money a day late).

It was an amazing experience, but the planning (much of which I did myself) was horrendous. Arranging rides (we didn't have enough money for a bus), finding someone's pickup truck to load the robot and tools into (no trailer on short notice), getting permission to miss school. All of it was a nightmare. I personally love the district model because it lets teams like us who tend not to win regionals (never have since 1999) qualify for CMP, but I wish it cost less and gave teams more time to prepare to attend DCMP.

In the end, we were only a few qualification points away from going to CMP. Honestly, im not sure that we would have been able to attend if we did make it because we exhausted all of our funds, extra funds, and potential new sponsors trying to afford DCMP. Next season we will try do leave more room in our budget for further competitions, but that's not easy for a team that struggles to afford building and competing with a robot.

Congrats on making it to MAR DCMP, on both the fact you qualified and the fact you logistically made it possible to be there. Last year we qualified for the first time. We were very lucky in that we had won a Week 3 event, so we had a feeling we'd qualify, and that there were no Week 6 events in MAR so we had an extra week to plan for DCMP. Even with all this extra time, planning was difficult and stressful. We were fortunate enough to receive a grant from MAR (which I believe was easier to do prior to this year) and transportation was covered by our school district.

At DCMP we seeded much higher than we thought we would and, while we were excited and grateful to be doing well, we started freaking out about the possibility of qualifying for CMP. We ultimately were one single district point away from making it, and while we were all disappointed, there were sighs of relief about not having to raise all the money it would take to make it to CMP on such short notice.

My advice for all district teams: plan on going to DCMP, even if you think you'll have no chance on earth of qualifying.

Best case: you qualify and dodge a logistical nightmare.
Worst case: you have a nice chunk of extra money sitting around.

This year we set aside money for DCMP registration and arranged bussing well in advance and this saved us many, many gray hairs this year.