[Tonya Scott 476]

Many teams (like ourselves) are rural, middle america based, and there aren't a lot of corporate sponsors. Our team has won many awards based on our fundraising dynamics, but sometimes a small community can only handle so much. All the businesses in our small rural community get hit by several organizations on a daily basis.

We were actually asked to help write the fundraising guide on the FIRST website because we do so much of it. So fundraising is something that we are all to familiar, and experienced, with.

I still think that rather than looking at solutions to solve the cash flow problem, why don't we focus on the cause. It is very possible to solve the need for price increases at the root of the problems. I am no financial expert, but I am sure that there are numerous ways to prevent, or even decrease, the costs of entry fees.

Imagine the growth of FIRST if the initial Regional entry fee was $3000 or even $3500! It would be phenominal. Now I am speaking for middle america, regular to low income brackets. I like the earlier post about teams coming together to find sponsors to sponsor the regionals so that costs would be less for teams. Or even find sponsors that would fund half or all of the kits (if we even had kits) Just let teams use any motor of a specific type, and teams would be learning to be even more resourceful. Another aspect of being in middle america is having to travel a great distance just to attend a competition----most of our budget is travel (sound familiar?) it is 8 hours to St. Louis, 9 hours to Denver, and 9 hours to Houston. So we have to plan extra nights in hotel, extra gas, and charter buses because our school won't let us use personal vehicles. So if you live close to your regional, be thankful. It is a 4 day trek (or mecca?) to attend a regional---very costly.

Teams numbers are growing. I just think that change comes with growth. Flexibility is also a wonderful trait. But being a part of FIRST is a great experience, the other competitions are also very fulfilling, but if kids have their heart set on FIRST-----then funding shouldn't deny them. I think we all agree that we love doing FIRST and we get very excited just walking thru the pits to see all the ideas that materialized into functional machines.

There are so many creative and brilliant minds out there that build wonderful inventions and machines---surely we can be equally creative and open minded so that we don't deny students the opportunity to participate due to such high prices. Just think about how a student feels during build season and kickoff when their team couldn't pay the price to compete. FIRST is a great experience......every team that wants to participate should have that opportunity, regardless of financial resources.

Grants are great, but very difficult, especially among high competition. Good luck to all the needy teams, may you find some funding to get you there.