[Madison]

I have some rough numbers for our 2007 competition season budget, but nothing that captures our annual expenses. We attended two regionals -- both "away" -- and the Championship event as a qualifying team. Because we were eligible to compete in Atlanta as a result of performance, we paid through the nose for transportation, particularly. This budget also includes a lot of expenses that most teams here haven't mentioned or don't have to worry about. We provide door-to-door transportation to meetings for students (and mentors, for that matter) that don't have a way of getting there on their own, we feed about thirty people three or four times a week for about three months since most of us go straight to meetings from work and don't have a chance to eat dinner, and we pay for about 75% of student travel expenses and 100%* of mentor travel expenses as many of our students could not otherwise afford to travel with the team.

Altogether, we spent about $80,000 during the competition season. $15,000 in FIRST fees, ~$35,000 in travel expenses, ~$10,000 for meals, ~$5,000 for robot parts, ~$5000 for marketing and recruitment, and $10,000 on who knows what else -- incidental costs like shipping crate, shipping overages, team building parties at regional events, etc.

*Though the team pays for mentor travel expenses, we are funded almost entirely through participating, as a 401(c)3 organization, in donation-matching and time-for-money giving programs at Microsoft, Boeing and Federated Department Stores. Student are responsible for fundraising to meet their travel expenses as much as possible, so that helps us to offset these enormous additional costs. We allow them to pay the team back throughout the year, however, rather than require that they do so before being allowed to travel.