[pauluffel]

I know you don't have an example of a robot from aprevious year's competition down there in Australia with you, but I thyink that would be very helpful in getting team members and sponsors to join. There is probably a team here in the states with a very successful robot and the funds to ship it to Australia, and this would both give you a robot to show off to companies and give them idea of what FIRST about in that a team half a world away gave you one of their robots just to help you get started.

Support from whoever is in charge of the school is great as well. The principal of my school had our team ghost-write a letter for him to solicit sponsorship with. He took it and edited it a bit and put it on the school's letterhead with his signature and that letter has gotten us most of our sponsors.

If you're unable to find any sponsors (and I know how hard it is to get sponsorship for a tiny rookie team with nothing to show from previous years) you could probably get sponsorship from veteran teams back in The States. Last year my team only found a few hundred dollars worth of sponsors, and another local team gave up the money they had reserved for going to Nationals in order to pay our registration fee (mad props to Team 832) and after that rookie year, we now have plenty of experience and documentation so we've had no trouble in obtain lots of sponsors. Next fall when registration looms and you can't find any sponsors, ask around for help from friendly teams (and you can count on 1127 as a friendly team) becuse I know that many teams could cut a few corners and donate some money to help you pay registration and get your team to competition.

Hope to see you next year in competition!