[DFTF] Paying the Piper

[Joe Johnson]

This is part of a series of posts called Drinking From The Firehose on getting Dr Joe back up to speed on All Things FIRST.

Today's topic:
Paying the Piper

Okay here is a very practical question. Our team has essential $0. All we really have is a commitment by the school's administration to front us the $6500 needed to register for our first FIRST regional, a place to meet & build our robot (still being emptied of 30 years of junk it has accumulated) and permission to start knocking on doors trying to raise money.

It ain't much but it is a start (and it is more than many teams start with, so I am thankful).

Here is my very practical question. When should we pay FIRST? Should we hold off until the last minute in the hopes that we get a grant or find a sponsor or do we pay now.

Part of me thinks it is better not to "go into debt" to the school. That if we can't find a sponsor or get a grant by December, maybe it makes more sense just to watch from the sidelines this season, using the extra time to find the cash.

But the other part of me thinks that we'll find the funding and our team could benefit from being officially enrolled. I don't know if it is still true, but I think that FIRST use to send out the AutoDesk software after they cashed your check, for example. I've got kids interested in animation. They could start doing 3D Studio stuff right now (if that is still true).

While I am thinking about it. It seems like FIRST could send out a lot of the rookie kit as soon as they got the check -- the control system, the pneumatics, the batteries, etc. Do they? If not, why not?

Anyway, thanks for all the advice so far. Keep the information coming.

Cheers,
Joe J.

[Mark McLeod]

Well, you can start Autodesk now. There's no check to cash for that.
They freely offer a whole slew of general educational software.

On rare years, FIRST will send out some piece(s) of the Kit early if teams have already paid. But you can pretty much wait until you hear that is happening before you pay early.
The first year of this cRIO control system arrived at Thanksgiving.

School payments do take time to process, so don't necessarily wait until the last minute, but it is easier to wait until after the NASA grants are awarded.

[Billfred]

My notion on a few things:

1) Unless you positively have no traction whatsoever, don't sit on the sidelines. Send your money closer to the deadline if you must.
2) See if your funds are restricted solely to registration. If you've got a good fundraising group that can sling some light bulbs or HEXBUGs, you may be able to turn $6,500 into more than that. (We are running into this issue--we know we can turn the $300 we have in unrestricted money right now into more, but you can only get so much product for $300!)
3) FIRST sent out the 2009 control system early once you registered and paid (and paid the shipping--fair is fair). They haven't done it since, since only minor changes happened year-to-year.

[Colin P]

I think FIRST doesn't send out the rookie kit because it's starting to contain game specific parts. Last year everybody had the light sensors and sliders. They also probably don't want certain teams to have access to the controls system, which could be new in some way year to year.

[AdamHeard]

I say any team capable of competing in this competition should be capable of raising/paying that money back.

Borrow money or not, that's entirely your call; but to sit 2012 out would be a shame! I want to see what Joe's Rookies can do!

[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

[Tom Line]

Dr. Joe, do you have a JCPenny nearby? If you have one within 20 miles or so, they have been in the process of sponsoring a large number of FIRST teams recently. You may want to call them ASAP. Unfortunately, I have no contact information handy. Perhaps someone else can help with that.

[Brandon Holley]

Joe-

It would certainly make the decision easy if you had money at the ready, but many many rookie teams start the year with nothing. Many teams even register without the promise of a school fronting the cost for the first year. Now, whether that is a good practice is dependent on your team. Fundraising is no easy task, it takes hardcore dedication, and sometimes it doesn't pay off like you hope.

That being said, being a FIRST team has its perks. We have access to things like the LED bulb fundraiser (which is great by the way), Hexbugs and more recently some name recognition to the general public. As another cool perk, you happen to reside in the Greater Boston area (like us). There's a hotbed of innovation here, and technical companies that "get" what FIRST is trying to do. Forming a corporate sponsorship is a very likely possibility for your team.

If I were in your shoes, I would hold off on paying until the last possible day (Dec. 2nd I believe), but I would commit to being a rookie this year. Once you set yourselves as "doing it", you can really push hard to raise funds.

If the NUTRONs can be of any assistance in your efforts, please let me know.

-Brando

[SenorZ]

We applied (well, our managing mentor did) for NASA and JCPenney grants. We ended up getting both. While this was immensely helpful after we received the funds, we were stressed out up until that point.
We did not get a promise of our school/district covering costs. This was because our district was (and is) in bad financial condition. Looking for sponsors hasn't yielded anything yet.
We did do an online fundraiser with IndieGoGo.com over the summer. That netted us about $700... great for FTC, but not FRC. If we had done more to advertise the fundraiser we might have gotten more donors.

[Pjohn1959]

Originally Posted by Joe Johnson

While I am thinking about it. It seems like FIRST could send out a lot of the rookie kit as soon as they got the check -- the control system, the pneumatics, the batteries, etc. Do they? If not, why not?

I really like this question. Why not allow the rookie teams to get their controls systems early? After all, they have to pay that $6500 entry fee (really?????? ) for their first regional event.

[Mark McLeod]

The control system won't be ready until Kickoff.
The Beta teams get it first, then error corrections/improvements get wrapped back into the system and tested again before it goes out to all of us.

One of the changes is the Beta program where FIRST involves teams in Beta testing the control system each Fall.

Originally Posted by Pjohn1959

Why not allow the rookie teams to get their controls systems early? After all, they have to pay that $6500 entry fee (really?????? ) for their first regional event.

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

The control system won't be ready until Kickoff.
The Beta teams get it first, then error corrections/improvements get wrapped back into the system and tested again before it goes out to all of us.

One of the changes is the Beta program where FIRST involves teams in Beta testing the control system each Fall.

To further elaborate, I don't even think all of the beta teams are getting beta hardware this year. I'll have to see if anythings changed, but the last I heard for us was that the beta kits would be distributed as evenly as possible based on the supplies they had.

-Brando

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Pjohn1959

I really like this question. Why not allow the rookie teams to get their controls systems early? After all, they have to pay that $6500 entry fee (really?????? ) for their first regional event.

When you stop and tally up how much stuff the rookies get, $1500 is a steal!

Joe, I would recommend looking into the Nasa, JCPenney, and BAE Systems grants as a great start! Corporate sponsors are a little harder to attain but for your area you have a great opportunity with how many companies are around you compared to a suburban neighborhood.

[rsisk]

Originally Posted by Tom Line

Dr. Joe, do you have a JCPenny nearby? If you have one within 20 miles or so, they have been in the process of sponsoring a large number of FIRST teams recently. You may want to call them ASAP. Unfortunately, I have no contact information handy. Perhaps someone else can help with that.

This is a great idea, but bad execution. Do not call the jcpenney directly. Call your regional director instead. The RD is the person that coordinates the grants from jcpenney stores. Calling the store directly could jeopardize the chance for a grant from that store.