State Funding of Michigan FIRST Teams
Last year the State of Michigan Board of Education set aside $150,000 in money to fund 25 rookie FIRST teams from public school districts at $6,000 each. We set it up to review and award the grants on a rolling basis, with submission dates by the end of each month and awards 2 weeks later.
Veteran teams were allowed to apply for the same $6,000 grant but could not be awarded the grant unless there was money left over. Veteran team applications were received throughout the application period, but we did not make any veteran awards until the very end of the entire grant period after all rookie awards were made. which in our case was December 8.
The payment process was less than ideal, with the school laying out the $6,000 to FIRST and then receiving a 1/12 reimbursement each month through their school aid checks. We are trying to fix that for this year and may event attempt to have the State of Michigan make one lump $150,000 payment directly to FIRST.
The application itself was also quite cumbersome, following a similar format to NASA. We've changed that for this year, should the money be approved in the state budget once again. Now basically rookie teams will automatically be awarded the grant by answering a few simple questions, like, have you registered for FIRST, what is your team number, how many teachers students, sponsors and mentors do you have?
Veterans will once again be allowed to apply for the left over money. I hope one day we have enough growth in Michigan to give out all 25 grants to new teams and enough other money to help veteran teams.
If you need any additional info, please email me directly at
gail.alpert@gmail.com