Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris is me
What's stopping any team in FIRST from going to more than one event? Building a practice robot? Nothing they can't change.
One of the things about FIRST that's different than the real world is that almost all instances of "wealth" among teams are earned every single year. While in life, there are people that don't lift a finger a day in their lives and inherit millions (Paris Hilton types), in FIRST that really isn't the case. Every team has to fundraise, and few single corporations give the $60,000 a year or so that it costs to run a team that goes to 2 events, champs, practice bot, the whole 9 yards.
What I always see is people carrying this abhorrence of the wealthy and embarrassment of riches into FIRST without really understanding why people think all of those rich snobs are disliked by them or others. It's not (shouldn't be) jealousy, but that "I'm doing all this hard work and that jerk didn't do anything to earn it" that seems to generate these sentiments. This is a concept that doesn't exist in FIRST.
Motivation aside, your suggestion isn't a bad one. It's what VRC and FTC have done for years now.
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I agree with this statement except on numbers.
1075 has made do quite handily over the years on a budget less than $20k.
We have gone to two regionals since 2008, and for 2010, we're finally going to CMP. Additionally we've gone to offseasons every year since 04. Starting in 2007, we've gone to Kettering Kickoff (6 hours away, in Flint, MI) and Brunswick Eruption (10 hours away, in North Brunswick, NJ).
For 2010, we got a new sponsor for $8300 that we weren't expecting, which allowed us to add CMP to our list.