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As far as getting a team to nationals on three weeks notice, it's possible to do it as a team. When I was on 7, back in '99, we did just that. At the Philadelphia Regional, we decided to go to nationals given we had just won number one seed. What we did was simple: we called our sponsors and invited them to come see us. Doing that, we fundraised over $8000 in a weekend. One of our sponsors offered to ship the robot for us. As far as paying to go to Florida, we manage to book a flight for the whole team. Team members fronted the money and then we started on a candy sale. On average, each person sold about $400 worth of candy (50% profit). The money that you fundraised (for the most part, there was some evening out) was refunded to you to help with the cost that you fronted. I think we ended up paying about $400 per person that year. So basically, it's possible to come up with the money and FIRST in the past has opened up Nationals to regional winners even if the event was "full."
Matt
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