Quote:
Originally Posted by rsisk
1. Drive down the cost of participating in FIRST. Reduce the cost of competitions. Increase the number of matches played. Work with vendors to improve supplies of COTS parts.
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We have to keep in mind the place of the local FIRST chapter. I know KC FIRST already spends much more than they'll ever get back from FIRST on the KC regional. I'm not entirely sure where that $4,000 to the regional goes, but I'm sure not all of it goes to the regional. FIRST has dozens of employees dedicated just to FRC, and they have to get paid somehow. Even with all of their generous sponsors, they still need more money. While I think increasing the matches played is a good option, there's no real way of doing that on a regional model without adding more time, which is just more cost. If switching to a district model, then things get even more expensive, and I've heard from KC STEM that they are not in great support of this idea just because of cost.