Probably won't have enough money for FRC this season :(

[ferret_guy]

So on Friday, November 23 I learned the administrator in charge of giving out funds had just decided to not fund FRC. for those of you counting that's 14 days before the money is due, now I realise that budgets are tight (they decided to start a vex program from scratch) but it would have been nice to get much
more notice. After hearing this i decided to do something I had never done before I decided to fund raise. Now after calling ~112 local and national Technology and Engineering companies I had not a single person who could remotely help us in time. I did not directly reach a decision maker at 6 companies so I left a message and await a callback however I doubt very much that they will collectively provide the 5,000$ required for registration.

[dcarr]

Contact your regional director for help. They may be able to find you some last minute support or make some arrangements to buy you some time. I feel terrible for your situation and I'm praying that you are able to find a solution.

How many students are on the team? Have you considered charging a team fee (to those who can afford it)? With most athletic sports charging in the range of $500-2000, we've found that a modest $100-200 fee is something most parents are fine with paying.

[daniel_dsouza]

Originally Posted by dcarr

Contact your regional director for help. They may be able to find you some last minute support or make some arrangements to buy you some time. I feel terrible for your situation and I'm praying that you are able to find a solution.

How many students are on the team? Have you considered charging a team fee (to those who can afford it)? With most athletic sports charging in the range of $500-2000, we've found that a modest $100-200 fee is something most parents are fine with paying.

Our regional director was able to help us last year. We were about $1000 short, and she was able to get some employees (Microchip) to donate government-refundable donations.

Our team "demands" a $30 fee (we can't demand it, as we are a school club and cannot demand funds from members, or exclude them when they don't contribute). However, we also ask our members' parents to donate their tax-credit. Each family can donate $400 dollars, and individuals can donate $200. The government gives them back their money come tax-time.

Our school has pledged to gives us funds as well, but we can not always count on them either.

I'll keep your team in my prayers as well.

[KelliV]

Have you talked to your school district, maybe they can pay the money up front and then you can collect donations and funds as the season goes on to pay them back. This is what we do with the cheer squad I coach, the league pays the comp costs up front then we collect money from parents/fundraising/donors to pay the league back.

I would also locate the studies FIRST has done on student involvement and present the graduation information to your district. A lot of funding comes from graduation rates amongst students and districts are more likely to listen to hard evidence rather than someone giving an anecdote of prior experience.

[billbo911]

We are in a similar situation. I applaud your efforts and encourage anyone in a similar situation to do the same.
If our funding does not come in on time, we will be doing a first as well.

This year we may ask the parents to make a donation. It will not be mandatory. Most of our parents understand to huge benefits that come from participating in FIRST. In our case, it will be a tax deductible donation.

Consider the amount a parent contributes when their student participates in any Varsity sport. Cheer-leading, Basketball, Football, Tennis, and even Golf, to name a few, have costs associated with them in just personal equipment, let alone team costs. Why should Robotics be considered any different?

[dcarr]

Originally Posted by billbo911

Consider the amount a parent contributes when their student participates in any Varsity sport. Cheer-leading, Basketball, Football, Tennis, and even Golf, to name a few, have costs associated with them in just personal equipment, let alone team costs. Why should Robotics be considered any different?

Precisely. We think our $100-200 fee is more than fair compared to the $500-2000 fees that athletic sports charge.

[Mk.32]

We also "ask" for a $200 fee, with our school we cannot make any fees mandatory and can only ask foe fees in donation form. I am unsure of how sports at our school does this, but I believe most of them do have to provide their own gear [imagine asking every student to bring their own tools...]. However for sports quite a few people invest a lot into it in hopes to be recruited for a school which FIRST cannot provide. Just my .02$.

[CalTran]

Originally Posted by Mk.32

However for sports quite a few people invest a lot into it in hopes to be recruited for a school which FIRST cannot provide. Just my .02$.

FIRST doesn't have recruiting to schools? Huh. Must have been some other reason I applied to Kettering then. I think that FIRST, as Dean has put it before, is the only "sport" that all of our members can go pro in. In applying to colleges recently, there have been plenty of schools that ask if you participate in Robotics. Take a walk down Scholarship row; there's admissions officers waiting to talk to each and every one of us. I think there is plenty of opportunity to be "recruited" by a college.

Perhaps at this point you could also, if you're up for a few more phone calls, expand your search to not just technology and engineering firms. Try calling around anywhere; for instance, is there a restaurant that your team frequents? You could ask them for a little bit, not necessarily the full $5000.

[dcarr]

Originally Posted by CalTran

FIRST doesn't have recruiting to schools? Huh. Must have been some other reason I applied to Kettering then. I think that FIRST, as Dean has put it before, is the only "sport" that all of our members can go pro in. In applying to colleges recently, there have been plenty of schools that ask if you participate in Robotics. Take a walk down Scholarship row; there's admissions officers waiting to talk to each and every one of us. I think there is plenty of opportunity to be "recruited" by a college.

I love this post. This is an extremely important point. Parents may pour thousands of dollars into their son or daughter's athletic experience, but only a tiny percentage of them will go on to play at a high level in college and even a smaller number will turn pro.

Participating in robotics can absolutely improve a student's chances of getting into a good school - and not only that, make them more prepared once they get there.

[Mk.32]

Originally Posted by dcarr

I love this post. This is an extremely important point. Parents may pour thousands of dollars into their son or daughter's athletic experience, but only a tiny percentage of them will go on to play at a high level in college and even a smaller number will turn pro.

Participating in robotics can absolutely improve a student's chances of getting into a good school - and not only that, make them more prepared once they get there.

I am not arguing that FIRST cannot help with college, it probably has made massive impact on me and my college apps but what I am talking about is about where students sigh contacts to go to certain schools. Colleges send scouts to schools to pick out individuals on sport teams and offer them contracts to that college, I am not trying to argue that first doesn't help for college but just commenting on how the systems are very different.

[dcarr]

Originally Posted by Mk.32

I am not arguing that FIRST cannot help with college, it probably has made massive impact on me and my college apps but what I am talking about is about where students sigh contacts to go to certain schools. Colleges send scouts to schools to pick out individuals on sport teams and offer them contracts to that college, I am not trying to argue that first doesn't help for college but just commenting on how the systems are very different.

Right - but only a few kids per school will be lucky enough for that. FIRST helps every kid get ahead.

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by dcarr

Right - but only a few kids per school will be lucky enough for that. FIRST helps every kid get ahead.

So do sports and other organized activites. No activity/club/sport, including FIRST, give financial advantages to all students to get them ahead. All activities/clubs/sports, including FIRST, do teach students lessons and provide experience to help every kid get ahead. I understand what you are saying, but by saying "FIRST helps every kid get ahead" implies sports do not do that.

[ttldomination]

The suggestions here to seem to get into a bit of a long term solutions, but I think the skinny of it is:

(1) Contact your regional director.
(2) Ask your students to chip in a little more.

Additionally, reach out to parents/community partners that you guys have worked with in the past. A personal plea to help out with some temporary financial needs can often yield to unexpected results.

Additionally, considering reaching out to your administrator to meeting you half way on the money, or at the very least, consider giving you a slight "loan" so that you can make the FIRST deadline and then you'll have more time to do some fund raising.

Additionally, consider some emergency fundraising. If your school will allow you to sell things during lunch (Ramen) or if you guys can do a carwash, then that would be yield some exciting profits as well.

Finally, and I know this is kind of an obvious alternative, but have you considered perhaps taking a break? I would find it hard to believe that if a team activity is generating genuine interest, then a school administrator would opt to cut its funding. Perhaps get behind the decision to move to VEX, and then consider a return to FRC when you've either (a) gathered enough funds or (b) you want to consider expanding the VEX program. It may not be ideal, but perhaps take a step back in an attempt to admire the bigger picture.

- Sunny G.

[slijin]

With regards to charging team dues, see if your school has a nonprofit (?) organization that dues can be funneled through so that they can be deducted from taxes. A number of academic and athletic teams at our school (robotics included) funnels dues through our Alumni Association to make team dues tax-deductible.

[topgun]

A couple of thoughts:
1) Does the administrator have the authority to make that change? Go to their boss/school board and request a meeting. My assumption is you have a good working relationship with the people in charge and can show positive results from the team efforts.

2) If they remain steadfast in denying the team funds, beg for funding for this year with the expectation that you will not get funds next year. This buys you time to get through this year and raise funds for next year. Play on their guilt if you have to. Most organizations usually plan further out and what they are doing is a major blow to your team. They wouldn't like it if someone did the same thing to them. We had a sponsor one year that gave us money, but they were upfront that they would not be sponsoring us the following year.

3) Take over the new Vex program they are starting. You have everything in place with your team now to do Vex. It would be different but Vex has many if not more of the same STEM outcomes as FIRST.

Good Luck and let us know the outcome.