Free Ride

[mormannoob]

i was curious if the regional winners should get a free ride to ATL (plane, hotel, the whole shabang) say why or why not i think it would be nice and would be a cool little extra reward

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by mormannoob

i was curious if the regional winners should get a free ride to ATL (plane, hotel, the whole shabang) say why or why not i think it would be nice give and be a cool little extra reward

Nope.
They have to pay their own way.
There hav been cases of teams qualifying for the championship and not going because they lacked funds (happens quite often, sadly).

[Pavan Dave]

Nope. It has never been that way and it never will. It would cost TOO much for FIRST to handle and plus, that isn't the point. I think FIRST would like to see more shipley's stickers on your bot showing that you worked hard to get to where you are rather than to hand you a free ride, because to me, that is what FIRST is about. Learning about the real world and making do with what you got.

Pavan.

[mormannoob]

Originally Posted by Pavan

Nope. It has never been that way and it never will. It would cost TOO much for FIRST to handle and plus, that isn't the point. I think FIRST would like to see more shipley's stickers on your bot showing that you worked hard to get to where you are rather than to hand you a free ride, because to me, that is what FIRST is about. Learning about the real world and making do with what you got.

Pavan.

i completely understand that FIRST is all about gracious professionalism and real world exposer but we are still a competion

[joshsmithers]

It is my opinion that a team that wins regional or chairmans should not have to pay to attend, but must still pay for food, hotel, and traveling.

[rees2001]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

Nope.
They have to pay their own way.
There hav been cases of teams qualifying for the championship and not going because they lacked funds (happens quite often, sadly).

Been there. It stinks but, it makes you work that much harder the next year... 2003 ended bitter sweet, 2004 was a fun year for us.

[TheNotoriousKid]

we went over this.........i started a "First PRize" thread and i was bashed for it soo.........i would quit right now.......lol........im serious.....

[mormannoob]

i just think it isn't fair for a team to win regionals and just because they cant afford to go to nats their season ends if we want to consider our selfs a sport i would assume it should work that way
i mean the best teams in each region should all have a chance to prove they're the best teams in he world

[Pavan Dave]

But keep in mind that competition is not the number 1 goal of FIRST. Think of why the Chairmans award at regionals is more prestigious than a championship win? Competition is only the path that FIRST takes to bring science, engineering, and technology to the masses.

[VanMan]

Ya, our team has to beg on Monday and Tuesday for money from our sponsors.

My opinion is slightly harsh... but here it is: If you cannot fund the absolute minimum to get yourself to Champs, then you haven't gone to your community enough, and aren't doing the main mission of FIRST, and so you do not deserve to go there anyway.

If a team seriously wants to go, there is nothing stopping them from getting the funding and sponsorship to go. The only limiter is how much they care, and how much they want it.

[mormannoob]

Originally Posted by 114ManualLabor

My opinion is slightly harsh... but here it is: If you cannot fund the absolute minimum to get yourself to Champs, then you haven't gone to your community enough, and aren't doing the main mission of FIRST, and so you do not deserve to go there anyway.

If a team seriously wants to go, there is nothing stopping them from getting the funding and sponsorship to go. The only limiter is how much they care, and how much they want it.

Im for that but i think maybe FIRST could at least pay for registration then sponsors could pay for travel room board etc

[vivek16]

yeah the 6000 dollar entry fee seems a little too much. was there an entry fee for regionals?

i agree that there should not be an entry fee if they are good enough to make it to nationals.

[Bongle]

Originally Posted by vivek16

yeah the 6000 dollar entry fee seems a little too much. was there an entry fee for regionals?

i agree that there should not be an entry fee if they are good enough to make it to nationals.

How would you feel if all the other teams had to pay ~$1200 ($1.5mil championship budget divided by 1300 teams) more in regional fees so that the 'good' teams could attend nationals? From my experience on a non-qualifying team, there'd be a lot of resentment that you're paying more so that those that have already won a regional can continue their season for free.

Yes, there is an entry fee for regionals. From FIRST's site:

The registration fee for a team's initial event of the season is $6,000. Subsequent Regional Events are $4,000 each, and the Championship is $5,000. Besides allowing you entry to one event, the fee covers the Kit of Parts, which includes all materials necessary to build a basic robot, and related software. It also includes team and technical support and program-related items, e.g. awards, trophies, Team Manual, and the Program Book.

[Tottanka]

Well Well Well...
I'ts easy for you guys to say it, but we as an Israeli team need a lot of money to go to Nats...
It comes out like this:
Per Student: 1000$ per flight ticket, 150$ hotel, 100$ additional transportaion and food, 40$ for a Visa to the U.S

That is a total of 1290$ per student...
lets say that we need a human player, 2 drivers a coach and 2 mentors as a Minimum for taht travel...

We are now standig at 7740$

Now for the bot shipping its an additional 300$

total of: 8140$ for a team of 6 members.

Our sponsor wont give us anymore money, and we dont expact it to. Its 7500$ spent on the building + 1 regional is more then we expact.

As a city where the average sallery per person is 3000NIS per month, which is 26,000 NIS per year = 6900$ per year, we cant possibly expact to gather more then a 1000$ from good civilians. Say sponsors give us 2 more G's and schools gives 2 more G's we are now at 5.

And now the rest of the money is going to be spent by team mebers bank accounts. I really dont think that this is what FIRST is about, it snot about wasting your own money on that.
FIRST should not give us money, but it should serioulsy help teams from UK, Netherlans, Brazil and Israel (am i forgeting a country?) cross the sea and particiapte in the great event in Georgia.