Quote:
Originally posted by Bduggan04
Andy is right. Having a GM sponsor in no way eliminates the need to fund raise. In my two years on a GM team, I had to fund raise a lot. I hear the words "big money teams" and such, but this is not usually the case. Any team sponsored by an OEM like Ford, Chysler and GM are always unsure about their future. Cost savings initiatives on the scale of 4 billion dollars or more make robotics teams targets for quick savings. This is also true of any tier one company that relies on the OEM's for business such as Delphi, Visteon, or in our case Collins & Aikman. The automotive industry, from my experience, is a very good environment for FIRST teams, but it is not always the most stable one.
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In no way was I saying that GM teams have all the money they need, I know that (almost) every team has to raise money in some way or another, my point was that many teams wish that such large amounts of sponsorship money was available to them.
Case in point.... Team 1000 a rookie team worked very hard to raise the money to go to competition. They did constant fund raisers, and paid a lot out of there own pockets.
I was just stating that "Big Sponsorship Companies" do want there advertisements to be seen, if that is a breach in FIRST's ethics, that is for you to decide, personally I believe it is, although if I were the captain of a team where I had the choice of being a "well-funded" team with a few setbacks, such as not being totally student built, I would take that over having no team. I think it would be better to have a team that has mainly mentor building now, and then figure out how to get more involved.
Just again, i would like to say that my opinions to not reflect my teams, sponsors, or schools beliefs on this topic in any way.
I'm always up for a heated discussion like this, I believe that discussions like this make people remember just how some other teams work, and to be grateful for your team and your sponsors.
Thanks,
-Greg The Great