Gaining Official College Sponsorship

[Lokietek]

Hey Guys,

My team currently is setting up a meeting with an engineering school in our city in order to gain support from the through getting mentors and access to machine shops. I would like to ask how a college becomes an official mentor. Is it just that they agree to work with us and then we get mentors and machine shop access. They go on your t shirt and that is all. Or is there some more official procedure to it?

[EricH]

If a college is going to be sponsoring you, you should treat them the same as any other sponsor who is sponsoring you at about that level. This is something that you, as a team, will need to work out.

That said, I believe the process for most teams is that a "sponsor" is someone who gives (money, tools, use of a machine shop) in excess of a certain amount (donating to a fundraiser doesn't necessarily count--though large donations might). Many teams will have different levels of sponsorship--the sponsor's name might be on the shirts, the robot, team trailers/gear if any, official team name, depending on the level--and the sponsor would get various items other than where the display of their name is (e.g., second trophy from event) depending on level. (Mentors may also be sponsors, but typically shy away from having their names displayed on the robot and other things.)

For example, if I was the "benevolent dictator" of a team, a local company offering the use of a machine shop and mentoring assistance would probably be up on the top level or second level of sponsorship--name on official team name, name/logo on robot, name/logo on shirts, and most likely on any team-owned vehicles. They would most certainly end up with at least one team shirt, a plaque, a yearbook (summary of the team's year), and quite possibly one of the "extra" trophies, should there be trophies or medals won.



With that said, they may have requirements for you to be sponsored by them. Often, those requirements will be reasonable--correct display of their logo, for example, or progress reports, or in the case of a machine shop, proper safety training. Occasionally, there may be some unreasonable ones that you may want to negotiate around or out of if you can. (I've heard of one or two possible cases of that unreasonable requirement--for 999/1000, they'll work with you to minimize the effect.) MAKE SURE YOU MEET THOSE REQUIREMENTS! I don't think that that can be emphasized enough--they do not have to sponsor you, and not meeting a requirement may be enough to cause the sponsorship to be removed. Ask a NASA Grant team who failed to meet a requirement one year and needed a grant the next year how that can hurt you...

[FrankJ]

Pretty much what Eric said.

Your team decides who you call sponsors. No place to register them in an official First capacity that I know of. They will also be sponsors of First team XXXX, not First the corporation.

Mentors (individual people) are registered in TIMS by the primary or secondary team contact. (The people with TIMS log in for the team.) Once again your team decides who you call mentors. They then log on & sign a release. Probably only important if they are attending competitions. Oh it also gets you a mentor pin & thank you letter.

Landing a sponsor is only the first step (no pun intended). You need to be continually selling them on what you are doing with their resources. Not only the awesome robot you build, but the STEM benefits to your team & community.

[Lokietek]

Ok Ive gotten a response over email from the Dean of Mechanical Engineering from that school and he said that I can receive the professors directly as sponsors and also probably that is how (through them) I will be able to get use of the machine shop. However, even though this is a positive response to level of official help it gets to. I don't know how much insurance I would have after obtaining the professors directly through asking.
Also if they give me what I need should I seize getting the mentors from the other two colleges which Im in process of or continue it just for insurance.