Posted by Andy Baker at 04/24/2001 4:15 PM EST
Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.
In Reply to: So then where IS Delphi interested in starting a team?
Posted by Jessica Boucher on 04/24/2001 2:41 PM EST:
Jess,
This is a good question. I cannot speak for Delphi as a whole, but I'll give you my opinion on this subject.
Delphi (and many other companies) is going through a tough year financially. If the current economic trends persist, I would be very suprised to see Delphi sponsor more teams at this time. All of the Delphi teams went through some major budget cuts in '01, and luckily, our team was ready for it.
IF we would be starting more teams, I would concentrate my efforts on starting a team in two places: Mexico and North-central Indiana.
Delphi has many plants along the Rio Grande, and there are not too many programs like FIRST available to Mexican students.
The Mexican students would eat this stuff up, in my opinion. We (a few engineers on the TechnoKats) have lobbied our division of Delphi to start a team down in Mexico, but our upper management is not keen to it right now. Once the economic tide changes and we start making a profit again, the issue will be pushed once more.
Our other option with expanding Delphi's sponsorship (again, in my opinion... not Delphi's) would be to start more teams in our community. Right now, there are only 10 FIRST teams in Indiana. But, there are also some major corporations in Indiana who have no clue what FIRST is (Lilly, Conseco, GE Plastics, GM Truck - Ft. Wayne, Suburu-Izuzu, etc.). So, there are some ripe sponsors here in the state.
Andy B.