[smitikshah]

We are a school run team and there are very obvious pros and cons to this:

Cons:
1.) Having to make sure we only purchase things through certain NYS approved vendors. This keeps us from ordering certain cheap tools/necessities off of amazon and craigslist. Also procuring sole source letters when you have to order under a time crunch for big items can be annoying.
2.) Order time. Our lead fiscal mentor is really awesome about putting in orders ASAP so that we get things on time - but it's just the anxiety of knowing that we have to go through a process and paperwork for ordering items and it may delay us a bit is annoying. This can be good in a way because it keeps people that need to order stuff on their toes and makes sure they don't slack on their work.
3.) Space. Our school was wonderful about giving us our own space, but many schools have to use the back of other classrooms during build season just to have somewhere to put their stuff and build. When you have a non-school team you can find

Pros:
1.) Lots of easy close opportunities for outreach. Our school district is always having activities and events going on where we are welcome to bring our robot and let the community learn about FRC.
2.) Students. There are always students coming into our high school so its easy to get enrollment in the club. A lot of non-school affiliated teams have to do events and put up flyers in the community to get people to join the club. We are lucky enough to have the district support our club and get to advertise it in the school.
3.) Bussing/Transportation to events. The school will pay for busses that we need to get to events so we can ensure maximum amount of our students can attend. We don't have to pay for them as our district is wonderful in budgeting for them if they are requested enough time ahead of the event.
4.) Meeting times/days. As we are an extracurricular we can have meeting in school and don't need to worry about kids having to drive to meetings.
5.) Biggest One: Money! Our school supports the club and is very wonderful in giving us funding to make sure that we can build our robot and go to competitions every year. I think this year with our great performances at competitions and increased interest in the club our school district gave around $15k!

I personally love being on a school affiliated team, and think that the simple ordering stuff, while a pain, is overcome with the benefits listed above.