[ahecht]

I won't argue the legality of clones here, as that's been done to death. However, to actively encourage rookie teams to participate in such partnerships is suicide for FIRST.

Yes, many rookie teams don't do very well, and they all face challenges. However, the main reason -- heck, the only reason -- I am still involved with FIRST was the thrill I had during my and my high school team's rookie year designing a robot from scratch, getting to build it, and then getting to see it out on the field. We got to design and build everything: driveline, chassis, manipulator, electronics. Of course we had design help from professional engineers and mentors, and we received lots of advice and tips from other teams, but there was still a sense of ownership of our design, our process, our organization, and even our mistakes.

If you are so keen on assisting "helpless" rookies by doing their work for them, why not take a page from Team 190's book. Invite students from local school who do not have a team to join yours for a year. Work with them on your team. They will be getting he same experience as if they cloned your team, without clogging FIRST with carbon copies and crowding events with duplicate teams (plus you save on a second registration).

The next year, they can go on to start their own teams with the benefit of a year's worth of experience. Once they start a team, mentor them, but don't coddle them. Work with them to improve their design, invite them to come in and use your facilities and equipment, help them manufacture a couple of precision parts, but always make sure that they maintain full ownership of their design, their robot, and their team.

One of the great things about FIRST is that you can have over 1000 teams given the same task and the same kit of parts, yet you wind up with 1000 completely unique robots. I'm not going to condemn teams who have chosen this route in the past, but let's keep it as the exception, not the rule.