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Originally Posted by Koko Ed
There is more to it than just strictly financial reason.
Teams die out due to teacher support issues or lack of interest from the student body.
What exactly would be considered an acceptable rate of growth for FIRST because one complaint I have heard over the years on CD is how FIRST has grown so much and how it isn't like how it used to be.
How is FIRST going to change the culture if it's only limited to a few hundred school? Or even a few thousand?
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This is the million dollar question.
FRC will never meet Dean's goal of being in every school in America. It's simply too expensive. Much of the country is already saturated with teams. There isn't enough money to support more than a few teams per school district (or even that many, in some cases).
The average FRC team probably costs in excess of $10,000 per year. That's an astronomically high price for an after school activity. Granted we all know it's one of the most amazing programs a student can be a part of, but all that money has to come from somewhere.
VEX/FTC is a big step forward towards Dean's vision. It could be plausible that sometime in the near(ish) future there could be a FTC team in most schools in the country. It's much cheaper, yet it also gives students a taste of the experience they will receive in FRC. Once they move on from VEX, they can join a local FRC team, even if their school does not have it's own.
I've thought for awhile that FIRST is growing too quickly in California. I don't know about other states, but it seems like too many teams are being started, with no long term plan for funding, mentorship, etc (or a plan, but just falling short of being able to execute it). I'd much rather see no new teams be started, and every old team last at least 10 years than a ton of new teams popping up, but then being forced to quit after a few years when they can't sustain their program.
Mentor turnover is a big issue too. Working (or going to school), mentoring a team, raising a family, having a life outside of FIRST, etc is very difficult with the current time commitment required by FRC mentors. It's very easy to burn out, between the actual work with the students, and the strain of arranging travel, fundraising, paperwork, actual travel and supervision of the students, etc.
I know personally that last year I was spending over 65 hours a week physically at our team's facility during the competition season. Combine that with attending school full time, missing 12 days of class (and even more time with friends/family/etc) due to attending competitions, and eventually something has to give.
Pretty soon there will be too many teams for anyone to attend the Championship, outside of regional winners, and chairman's award winners. Presumably at some point there may not even be enough space for all those teams.
FRC will get too big for it's own good. The only question is how soon will it be?