[Mark McLeod]

We sort of have a related situation in a very limited sense now when the pre-rookies play with loaner robots in our off-season competitions.

Granted, they typically only do this a few months before joining the full program, however, on Long Island we've had perennial pre-rookies who never were able to get it together enough to register. One school in particular has done it for three years running. Even when we have them shadow our teams through a FIRST season, unless they fully commit the potential just doesn't get realized.

The goal is to get them into the full FIRST program, of course, because they miss out on so much. They haven't sweated through the build season or even the concept and design process and so don't experience most of the FIRST benefits. They do get the camraderie of working together to repair the robots, and the experienced students work closely with them on all aspects.

I think it's viable for teams that have to drop out for a season due to a lack of finances, but only to maintain the team as they try to pull their finances together to compete officially again.