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Originally Posted by Kevin Sevcik
Consider for a moment that a team might already be working incredibly hard just to scrape together their current level of funding. Perhaps many teams, I'm not sure as there's disturbingly little in the way of statistics on FIRST teams. Yes, there are additional team grants. A total of 200 of them for teams in need. It is entirely possible that there are more teams in need of these grants than this. Just because your team has had to work fairly hard to raise enough money, don't assume that other teams aren't already working harder than that. And don't assume that rookie teams will be able to handle a 20% price increase for their very first year when they're still working on their basic organization and motivation already.
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I hate to burst your bubble, but FIRST isn't just about building the robot, that's what BEST is about. FIRST is about building a robot, yes, but also about everything required, including money and community support, to get that robot built. You can always find more money, sure, it's not the easiest thing in the world to do, but the money is there, you just have to work, perhaps harder than you've ever had to, but it's still there. Rake leaves, do a car wash, bake sales, car raffle, toy sale, krispee kreme sale, auctions, any number of fundraisers will do. Look on the forums, plenty of teams have said they can't find the money, yet they got new ideas for fundraisers, turned around, and made the money and competed. There's even a fundraising forum, a perfect place for any team to ask questions and get new ideas for fundraisers.
So, don't complain about the price increase, or your lack of money. Unless you've tried every fundraiser possible for your team to do, you've worked as hard as you do during build season to get the money, do not complain that your team has no money. FIRST isn't just six and a half weeks over the winter, it's a year long commitment, the question is are you willing to commit all the time to it, or do you just want to build a robot and take the rest of the year off?
Sorry if I sound harsh, I'm just tired of hearing teams complain that there's absolutely no money out there, because I can assure you, if you look hard enough, all the money you need is there, it's just waiting for you to find it.