[David Brinza]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

Do any of you teams out there do collaborations with teams close by? Like having an under the table deal saying if any of you go to finals or something the others follow? Or even literally building the robots all together, using each other's resources and collaborate. I want to may be collaborate with the 2 close by schools, you know who you guys are... Yes I am thinking about it.

Collaborations are not uncommon. Collaborations may or may not involve common robots designs, agreements to pick each other in alliance selections, building in the same facility, etc. Collaborations might work out very well or perhaps not so well. Before teams jump into a tight collaboration, it's important to understand each others' expectations.

Team 980 has successfully collaborated with Team 4 (2006) and Team 2404 (2008-present). We discussed the possibility of collaboration with Clark Magnet in 2007 (when we had no build space), but their school policy wouldn't allow outside students to work on the campus. Given the open desire for "coopertition" by FIRST, collaborations are quite consistent with the program. You might even want to talk to us too (yeah, I know we're NOT one of the two close-by schools you're thinking about).