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Originally Posted by sanddrag
...but the bottom line is we are customers of FIRST The first rule of business is that the customer is always right. You can say FIRST is not a business but in the end we pay them money and they provide us product and/or service so it can be thought of as a business. We pay $6000 to attend one of these fine events and we expect better. ....
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YIKES!!! do a little checking before you explode. 35 teams at a regional paying $6k each come out to $210,000.
I think you would be shocked how much more than that it costs to put on a regional, and thats not counting the kit of parts, the year round work that has to be done
and the fact that almost every person working for FIRST at a regional is an UNPAID volunteer.
You are not even coming close to paying for what you get at a regional.
FIRST is a program designed to show students what a career in engineering and science is like. The robotics competition is only the platform, the bridge we cross, the project we take on in order to go through a quick engineering design/build/test cycle.
the competition is the 'test' phase - the chance to see how well your team did against the specifications of this years project.
What do you win if you win a regional? a trophy that is about 98¢ worth the plastic! If you goto the nationals and win, what do you win? 10 million dollars? full scholarships for all?
When you start thinking of FIRST as a robot building contest you have left the pavement and you are in deep weeds. That sort of thinking throws your whole perspective out of wack, and you end up in serious trouble.
Thats not what its all about.
That is not why thousands of people volunteer their time and their own money to be a part of FIRST.
That is not why sponsors give millions of dollars each year to host regionals, and to fund the nationals.