[dlavery]

We have a very simple philosophy on our team: everyone goes, or no one goes.*

First and foremost, Jim and Sam are members of a team. The team needs to act together and support the activities of the entire team - not just a subset of the members. Everyone on the team will share in the success of the performance on the robot. Everyone on the team will be responsible for the problems that will be encountered, and the development of solutions. Likewise, the entire team - not just the drive sub-team - should be able to reap the benefits of going to the additional competition.

The only acceptable answer is that the team needs to do additional fund raising and get enough resources for all the participants on the team to go to the event. Then they all go, Sam and Jim included. Otherwise, the team takes a pass on the additional competition.

There will be several who will say this is an unreasonable and you can't get the funds to send the entire team. I disagree. This year we happened to win the RCA at the New York City regional and thereby qualify for the Championships. We were not originally planning to go to Atlanta, but didn't want to pass up on this opportunity. Unfortunately, because we never planned to go to Atlanta, we didn't have the budget for it. And since we qualified during the last weekend of the regional competition season, we only had five days to raise about $20,000 for the registration and travel expenses for the entire team. With an enormous amount of effort and an all-out mad rush to fund-raise, we were able to pull it off and offer the opportunity to go to Atlanta to everyone on the team. It can be done.

-dave


* assuming all the students meet whatever minimum performance standards the team/school has set to permit them to go on team trips (minimum grades, meeting attendance, participation level, etc.)
.