How does your team make purchases?

[BrendanB]

For the most part our team has made purchases on personal credit cards/cash which was previously reimbursed by the school (painfully slow) and over this summer we moved to 4-H which has given us financial control so we've moved a good portion of our finances to an account we control. We are still making purchases on personal credit cards however reimbursement can take place at one of our meetings as long as our treasurer is given a heads up.

For our time sensitive robot build parts we used the above for our first few seasons however we have been very fortunate to have a generous local sponsor who handles our part orders instead of giving us a check. This is something you could approach a current sponsor if they would consider doing or ask if they would donate Visa/American Express gift cards which gives you direct access to donations you could use for spending on time sensitive parts. If you've had a strong relationship with a sponsor they might consider helping you out if you explain that your 6 weeks would be more productive if you weren't spending days waiting for orders to arrive because of the hassle in getting orders sent out.