[ICntIHaveRbtics]

1058 has been in a continuous struggle with the school district since its conception. Unfortunately allegations have been made against members of the team stealing computer equiptment and breaking hardware which have never been proven to be true. There is no inside support when it comes to having at teacher at the school who is also a mentor. All of our mentors are either parents or employees of our sponsors.

Our mentors are given a stipend of around 2k a year to split amongst however many there are as their "pay" for mentoring. Of course, they never keep the money - they put it right into the team account. Aside from the use of our metal shop, we don't receive any funding from the school district. We rely soley on community donations and business sponsorship. We also compete with the "World Famous Lancer Marching Band" and 1353572047203 Athletic organizations that are basically 2/3 of the reason why Londonderry exists. They get funding from the town, but they always have their hands out for more money.

But ever since I've been on the team, the support from the community has slowly been on a rise. Pushing for more media coverage and public demonstration opportunities as well as mass mailings to businesses to let them know what we're doing has helped. We've convinced our principal to come to the live kickoff in Manchester with us, and we're working on getting on the school budget ballot for $7k a year to pay for our registration and some spare parts.

It has only taken seven years to get to this point. Best words of advice are don't let any pot holes get you down. Just because the school may drop the ball here or there, you gotta just keep on top of them. You have to make yourselves hard to be ignored [graciously, of course!].