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Originally Posted by Kevin Sevcik
Finally, to those of you that have team members pay for travel expenses, fundraise, etc, if that's what it takes for your team to make it and your team is okay with that, then that's great. My team thinks that our purpose is to inspire the students and community to be interested in science and engineering. We don't think that sending students door to door to raise funding is a good way to do this, nor is it conducive to our students schoolwork. Our main sponsor is very interested in the welfare of our students, and would actually be upset if we had then doing major amounts of fundraising or if they had to pay their way to a competition. That's our philosophy, and that's where my arguments are coming from.
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And for the last time I'll say this: FIRST
does stand for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology." However, integral parts of science and technology are finding funding to pursue science and technology, that's part of the competition, part of preparing high school students for what the real world will be like. Rarely do you just get all the money and resources you need to accomplish a project. Due to this, my former team, rather unknowingly, began to work in fundraising as a major portion for thte club, and I know it's definitely given me, and many of the other students on the team, and much better view of how the world works.
Bottom line, if you're willing to rely on your one main sponsor, that's great, but what happens when they fold? What happens when that main sponsor is gone? Will your team still be around, because students have been going to every single business in town, asking for small donations? As Jeff said, there are some teams that get their money from every store in town, a little bit from each one, and have a sponsors list that can barely fit on the back of a shirt! If they can get the money they need by going, effectively, door to door, and then go and build a robot, I think the kids on that team are doing amazing, and sure, it's probably not conducive to their schoolwork, but it'll definitely help them gain a broader understanding of how the world works, and honestly, I find that a lot more important than knowing something like L'Hopitals Rule.