[Mike Martus]

There is a major difference between "Ownership" and "Partnership" and "Sponsorship".

I know of several sponsors that change schools each year. Their intent is to start a team then move on to another school. It is hoped the school will seek "Sponsorship" and continue in FIRST.

This is both hard on the school and the company as well. I ( Mike ) see no long time value in that.

We all form "Partnerships" to build a FIRST Team. That is Students, school, engineers and corp funding.

Is there a thing as "Team Ownership"? This can be looked at many ways from many sides. FIRST assigns new numbers to new teams. This is usually a new school entering into the competition. The school is assigned the number and if the team sponsor moves on to start a new team I think the number has stayed with the existing school/team. They just have to find a new sponsor.

Please realize there are many sides to a story. Why a sponsor moves on or why a school seeks a new sponsor. This is best kept "in the family" as not to harm either school or sponsor.