Quote:
Originally Posted by TechieSam
But over $1 million a year does seem excessive, especially if the schools are supplying some of that reserve in registration fees.
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Okay, let's put it this way:
- Many people assume many things about the FRC KOP. It is unwise to do so. FIRST is dealing with many different vendors who have many different arrangements with FIRST. To assume everything is totally free, or that FIRST gets charged for all of it, is unfair.
- FIRST sends representatives to FLL, FTC, and FRC events around the globe to support the volunteers that run the events, quality control, etc. Even for a relatively small staff, this adds up VERY quickly.
- FIRST no longer runs with a skeleton crew to get things done. As the program grows, the staff grows as well.
- FRC also hires companies to help them cover what they cannot, from event planning and logistics, to limited marketing, to making sure the electronics in your robots and on the fields run correctly.
- FIRST HQ - There are building and maintenance costs associated with everyday happenings.
All in all, it's completely unfair to this program's management and staff to assume that they're simply charging teams for the sake of charging them... FIRST is lucky to have the Finance and Development departments that they do, which have worked hard to keep up with the growth of the program (a feat in itself).
And think of what is demanded from them:
- Staff to stand by the phones during business hours (and extended overtime during some periods of the year).
- Development of new technologies for the KOP each year, and people to manage those partnerships.
- Development and maintenance of scholarships available to students.
- Available resources - everything from media guidelines, press releases, logo formats, website updates, agendas, order forms, game manuals, and supporting materials, to name a few.
Every time something breaks, every time teams ask to have something changed, even every time an honest mistake is made, it's probably liable to cost FIRST money. That's just business. Someone has to eat that cost.
For FRC alone:
- If you want to talk numbers, they have 50 Kickoffs, 41 Regionals, and a Championship Event which holds 343 teams this year.
- Just by a quick look at their portion of the website, they have approximately 50 pages which need to have the correct information posted at all times.
- There are 67 vendors which contribute to the KOP. That's 67 companies (and at least 67 representatives) that FIRST coordinates the shipping and potentially the kitting of their stuff, individually, each year.
- I'm sure shipping costs must be atrocious - moving 10 or 11 fields all over the US, Canada, Brazil, and Israel at least 42 times (one for each regional, and then Championship). And building each of those fields... that's probably pretty costly, too. The more regionals there are, the more fields they need.
- There are 26 trophies of varying size given out at each event. Without even worrying about the banners, medals, or pins at this point, you're talking 1,066 trophies for just the regionals alone and not including spares. Let's say FIRST gets a break on trophies for buying in bulk, and each trophy costs $30. (They are pretty much pure acrylic, after all... but I have a sinking feeling that they're probably much more than that.) You're talking almost $32,000 in trophies alone.
I'm just throwing out numbers here to help show you how large the responsibilities of FIRST really are (and this is only the FRC program, FLL is at least 8-9 times the size of FRC and much more international). And hey, even if they budget every year, I'm sure they have the same problems as every company where budgeted costs don't cover everything.
I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here to show you that there's a lot more to FIRST than what they let show at events... and it probably is even more than I wrote here. Unlike you guys, I have a hard time believing that they run on as little as they do.