Biggest Threat is our Principal - Please Help!

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by robomentor

he told me to stop bullying him.

The best answer here would have been something like "OK, if you stop bullying the team." Maybe not the most politic, but I would have loved to been at that "Harper Valley PTA" meeting.

As a bottom line, it sounds like the team is at least financially capable of operating independently of the school. I recommend that you set yourself up to do just that in case things go further downhill, while continuing to try to make things work within the school framework.

When our team formed just a few years ago, some of the more fail-safe thinking founding mentors (NASA and NAVY employees, mostly) decided to legally create a "booster club". This club is incorporated to be legally and financially independent of the school, apart from the statement in our charter which specifies that should we disband, any remaining funds in the club will be provided to the school; this, along with other statements in our charter and by-laws, qualifies us to be a 501 (c) (3) educational corporation. The great majority of our team's donors actually contribute to the booster club; I believe that only our government-agency sponsors give directly to our school account. We have enjoyed ever-increasing support from our sports-centric school administration, and our principal has turned the corner and understands us to be a sport rather than a club. We have no intention of ever becoming separate from the school! On the other hand, we have the means to do so should the situation change. Our three biggest dependencies on the school are (in approximate decreasing order of importance):

• "Field Trip" absence excuse for competition
• build and practice space
• A community in which to recruit members

We know that 1912 (whose schools are located in the same zip code as ours) managed to survive many years in a rather hostile school environment; they used sponsor-provided build space and had to recruit covertly.

The bottom line is that if the will and dedication are strong enough, a team business plan can be engineered to be strong in the face of adversity, just as a robot can.