Quote:
Originally Posted by Kleiman
...I will try one last time to reiterate and hopefully return to a meaningful discussion.
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That actually was very helpful in understanding the discrepancy in the "standard" experience switching to districts several people have described. I think I understand your frustration and feeling of being "priced out of the program, but I don't think FIRST is the culprit, at least not directly.
There seem to be a confluence of factors that has increased your participation costs, of which several were not necessarily experienced by other district teams in their transition. I'll attempt to highlight them individually, per my understanding.
As far as FIRST is concerned, registration is $5000 USD for either 1 regional or 2 district events. From the origin point, the
registration cost is the same.
Using recent exchange rates, this was approx. $6400 CAD.
FIRST Canada seems to have gotten approval for doing direct payments rather than paying and converting to USD. In doing so, they set the initial registration cost higher, at $7500 CAD, estimated. This increase is, as far as I can tell, somewhat unique to the Ontario district switch, related to the next point.
The district championship registration is typically set at $4000 USD, which using the same exchange rate of 1.28 would convert to $5120 CAD. Teams attending the Ontario District Championship are saving $2120 CAD compared to a US district team. This "benefit" does not factor in to the 78 teams who will not compete in the Ontario DC.
The last bit I'll cover is what I think is causing the most heartburn, and also isn't experienced by a significant number of teams. The TDSB has been paying your full initial registration cost, but now has reduced that amount so they can also partially fund teams who are able to advance to the district championship. Most teams have to fund raise through sponorships, external grants, student fees, bake sales, etc. While I understand not every one of these is feasible for every team, the experience of scraping together those funds -- being entrepreneurial -- is part of the FIRST experience.
I wish you and your team the best of luck in continuing. I do share your enthusiasm for the program and hope you and other teams in your situation don't fold because of this transition.