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Unread 24-08-2007, 10:34
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Re: Should sponsors be held the same standards as teams?

Indeed this is a great discussion.

There are really 2 dramatically different situations present:

1. Sponsors to the FIRST organization
2. Sponsors to FIRST teams

I believe that FIRST as an organization (the 501c3 based out of Manchester) has been selective regarding sponsors and still needs to be. Even receiving donated materials and services comes under scrutiny and vendors need to be held to a certain standard that suits FIRST's needs.

FIRST teams have more freedom to choose who their sponsors are, of course. Teams need to set their own criteria for sponsorship and have the ability to have a wider standard than what FIRST-Manchester has to deal with.

Here's a hypothetical situation...

An alchohol-brewing company approaches FIRST-Manchester with sponsorship resources. What does FIRST do? Currently, most likely, they respecfully decline. They *could* suggest to the company that they sponsor a team in their area, while promoting their "drink responsibly" campaign. This way, the relationship is between the team and the company, and not FIRST as a whole and the company. This relationship could be a litmus test to see how a positive relationship could come about.

I have no idea if this has happened before, but am only offering an idea if it would.

Andy B.
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