PNW introducing new funding model

[Aren Siekmeier]

Originally Posted by thatprogrammer

Majorly jealous that Districts seem to be getting cheaper and cheaper, while regionals are staying just as expensive as ever...

How is it cheaper?

It should be noted (and they are careful to make this clear in the announcement) that there are NO changes in overall costs or overall reg fees, they're just reorganizing them. USFIRST is lumping all DCMP fees into one. PNW is splitting all fees PLUS its own operating costs among teams. With just that, teams that attend DCMP see their price tag go down, but teams that don't see theirs go up (to the same value for all teams), so it washes out. It gets more expensive on average (to cover PNW's costs).

PNW is planning for more funding (probably already secured or repurposed) to bring it back down to the old base rate of $5000. Effectively funding to cover everyone's old DCMP fees and their own costs. But unless they provide this, everyone pays $6800 (they predict, on average). More expensive.

But the model is that everyone always gets billed the same and everyone sees the full cost of the program. Then PNW's grants take effect and you'll probably pay less than full price. And the goal is that in the future this funding can be found more easily due to the new model and program cost can indeed get cheaper and cheaper.