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Unread 01-06-2004, 10:30
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Andy Baker Andy Baker is offline
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Re: FIRST Competition Entry Fee Increases for 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Norton
First I like to say that FIRST did a great job in getting this out to the teams now so we can plan on it. This is what I can't understand. Why can a place like Bean town Bliz put on a great after market competition for only $250. The pits were better than UCF regionals. the thought of bringing in the robots like we did was the best I have ever seen at a competition.
...
If it is the cost of the kits that is going up then find lets pay more for that. but the cost of putting a competition on has gone up that much? Why should the cost for the national be more?
...
I would like to here from teams that the mentor/teacher has been around for 10 or more years. these are the people that have put in the time and heart into FIRST. Becuase I here these other people talk about how hard it is and how much time they have spent, try doing that over ten years and still keep going. We always go through this hardship. about money. I almost didn't have a team becuase of money and how well we have gotten the word out. there are more teams with a 15 mile of our school that take up a lot of our resourses.

This is not the FIRST time they have raised the money and it will not be the last time. I just hope FIRST goes out and Makes the world know who FIRST is, so it would be easier to go out and get money.
Here are a couple of thoughts:

It's not FIRST's job to "go out and makes the world know", it's ours. The teams are responsible for this. After being in FIRST for 13 years, our team has learned that. Teams who have been in FIRST for a long time should not think that they are entitled to handouts from FIRST. We veteran teams are the backbone of FIRST and we should be there, leading by example. We should not have this attitude that "FIRST owes us".

We are one of those teams who has a big sponsor who takes care of us well. Our students still fundraise (about $270 each last year), but we realize that we have a great sponsor.

There are various reasons why our sponsor sticks with us. I believe that one of the main reasons they support us so well is that our team represents them extremely well. While we compete hard, Delphi is always proud of our sportsmanship and grace. They see us helping other teams. When a FIRSTer is asked about the TechnoKats, they respond positively about the team and about Delphi. Our management seems to like that.

So, we have alterior motives for our "niceness". We want to keep our sponsor happy.

Whenever we attend a FIRST competition, we always remind the team that we are representing Kokomo High School, Delphi, Ivy Tech and the city of Kokomo. The team ALWAYS represents well. Even if we don't compete as well as we should, we realize that we are a team that others look up to and we need to put on a good showing. Other teams who have been around for many years have this same responsibility.

As for "why does Beantown Blitz only cost $250?" You are comparing apples and oranges here. Each field costs $40,000. BTB got it for only the cost of shipping. A travelling crew of experts setup and run the field and a/v system at each FIRST regional. This is not present at off-season events. This crew essentially trained those of us who run these off-season events in how to run the event. Also, there is no shipping and drayage costs at an off-season event like there are at a regular regional. Since regular regionals bring in experts (event managers, scorekeepers, head refs, etc.) to run their events efficiently, that adds to the costs. Again, this is not a cost at an off-season event.

Also, keep in mind that our entry fee is NOT going to run the event. Our team fees run FIRST. We pay the salaries, build the fields, pay for the facility, pay for game development, pay for stuff in the kit, and we pay for FIRST's operating expenses.

Regional costs are different. Regionals run on a budget from $150-$200,000 (I think). The difference between this cost and an off-season event's cost is large, but it is because of various reasons. Most of these reasons are derived from a directive of the FIRST Board of Directors (I am paraphrasing here, so bear with me). The Board says that "all FIRST competitions must be conducted consistently". Due to this, FIRST builds the fields, sends a crew out to set up the fields and a professionals a/v system, pays for "experts" to run the events, pays for high quality venues, and drayage/shipping issues.

A way to increase the # of competitions and decrease cost would be to give more attention to the non-official FIRST "scrimmages" that take place right before the ship date. If teams put on more of these events, other teams will be able to play at a lower cost.

Andy B.

Last edited by Andy Baker : 01-06-2004 at 10:41.
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