Alliance Invitation Phrase

[iVanDuzer]

Originally Posted by Andrew Lawrence

Please don't. It seems like a good idea, but there are hundreds of other ways to promote and thank your sponsors, and everyone groans the second someone starts listing their team's sponsors. We just want to get on with alliance selections, and we're sure you do to. No matter if you're inviting people to an alliance or responding to an invitation, just get up there, and get 'er done.

Would you consider sponsors as part of your team? FIRST thinks you should. That's why a big part of the Chairman's Award criteria is your relationships with your sponsors. You can look at sponsors just as cash cows, but that's the wrong way to do it. Your sponsors should be as much a part of your team as your number or nickname. That's why 1114 isn't just "The Simbotics." They're Innovation First International/General Motors St. Catharines Powertrain & Governor Simcoe Secondary School ... Simbotics.

NOW, that doesn't mean that you go up and list off every single sponsor. Have you seen the backs of some of these t-shirts? 2056 has two frikken columns of sponsors for crying out loud! So, pick your top 2-4 sponsors. The biggest ones. The ones who you recognize your team would ABSOLUTELY not exist without. They're probably your "gold" or "title" sponsors: the guys who give you thousands of dollars, or do all of your machining, or donate a huge warehouse for you to use. And show some respect and thankfulness and say their names. It adds 10 seconds to the alliance selections per team.

My rule of thumb is, you better say your sponsors' names once in the selection process. Whether you're accepting, inviting, or declining, choose one and rock it. Generally, if you're declining a selection, it's because you're going to go up again to form an alliance. So you can skip all the long stuff and just say

Team 3975 respectfully declines the invitation.

For OP: you could probably say something like:

Team 3975, The Dragons, with UTC, BMO, University of Montreal and Fusion Jeunesse, would like to [accept the invitation] [invite team number #### to be part of our alliance]