[DFTF] Paying the Piper

[Mr. Lim]

A promise from the school for the $6500 "loan" is a decent start.

I've been in a situation where the school has fronted registration costs to be paid back later in the season by vapourware sponsors (who did eventually emerge!). The float helped IMMENSELY. We were reluctant to take advantage of it at first, but decided to do it, as our sponsorship prospects were still good. We had motivated students, teachers and mentors, and plenty of sponsorship rocks still left unturned.

The irony is, often the best time to find a sponsor is when you can bring them in to the lab during build season and show them the work that's being done. It's a very powerful sell scenario.

It's a bit of a chicken or the egg conundrum, of course.

We took the plunge, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat with the right people around me.

[Business hat goes on]

My advice regarding payment timing in this type of situation:

1) Register on TIMS for your 1st event now, if you haven't already done so. This pretty much gives your team full operational status immediately as far as FIRST and its partners are concerned. No cheque required as of yet. As Mark mentioned, after doing this you can go ahead and register on the Autodesk site, and download CAD/Animation software.

2) Pay the registration, on time, but right at the deadline on Dec 2, 2011. There is no benefit (to you) right now in paying it early. Explore the purchase order route, if available via your school. This has two benefits: if you have an actual purchasing/accounting staff at your school to handle the PO, the transaction is generally smoother for everyone involved, and less work for you. Some schools/boards insist transactions above a certain amount go through a PO process anyways. Secondly, POs are usually invoiced on 30 day terms, which affords you a bit more time to build up your bankroll before the money actually leaves your account.

3) Make your intentions to pay right at the deadline known to your Regional Director (and/or the RD of the 1st regional you registered for). This is mostly in case a catastrophe happens, and the payment is held up for any reason. In the event of a legitimate delay, the RD will be your best ally in resolving things, as they have the most tools available in terms of holding your spot vs bumping you from the list for another team.

Hope this helps!

-Mr. "2/10 net 30" Lim