[Scott Ritchie]

I would be somewhat careful with wanting to get this sponsorship from you school systems. Once they become a sponsor you will then be under their rules and guidelines from top to bottom. This will affect the way money is spent, who the coaches are, where your meetings are going to be, where you go for regionals and so on. Also the school systems support is going to go back to how good the tax base is which leads back to the better funded will still be the survivors. I think that lack of funding for existing teams is like a normal business problem that needs to be addressed by the team and a plan devised as to how the group as a whole will over come the problem.

Remember this is me talking about myself and not anyone else.

I was one of those people that complained and felt sorry for our group because others had more or better sponsorship than my team. I blamed our record and performance on the lack of funds. It was till I quit crying about the situation and buckled down and used the talents of my group to fix the problem and did things change. There is a reason the well funded teams keep their funding and as unfair as it seems get more. You must research these teams find what they are doing and emulate what will work for you. Don't get caught up in what they are doing well now but what they did in the beginning to get there. I have told many teams this and I can tell they think you don't understand you have sponsorship. Keep in mind that 95% of the time big-time sponsorship doesn’t come with valet parking and room service. Again this is just me but I feel that the more self supported your group is than school supported the more pride your team will have. I think the hardest thing to keep in mind is that you build a robot, write a chairman’s, go to regionals, do community service and FUNDRAISE. It is not optional and it has to be worked on like any of the other areas.

Footnote: I was at a FIRST forum in MI about 4 years or so ago and I was whining about First razing the entry fees. This guy in the front of the room turned around and very abruptly, loudly told me "you have to pay to play. Everything costs money and this cost so much and if you’re in you will pay what it cost. So find the money or don't." Now I will say I was ready to throw down right there (not really he looked much meaner than I perceive myself to be) but I didn't. About two days latter I began to let that sink in and began doing what he said and found a way to pay. Hope this makes since in this thread.