pic: Districts in Minnesota Flyer

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by DareDad

Well why are you doing that then?

The state of Minnesota does not have grants to new teams. At least not that I've heard of. I know that Michigan and Iowa give (or gave) grants to teams but if Minnesota doesn't.

I go to MNFIRST.org and I see a button to donate, but I don't see any "free money for teams" verbiage.

So I ask again, explain how Minnesota is encouraging growth for the sake of growth?

My old team (2220) was started because somebody in our city saw that a company was offering grants to start an FRC team. He basically said he'd start one at Eagan High School and then told the school administration they had a new FRC team. From what I've heard of the team's early years, it's somewhat impressive that the team even came back for a second year, much less have gone on to become the impressive team they are now.

The team I currently mentor, 2667, exists because of a single sponsor. Despite having almost no communication with them last year and no idea that they planned to continue sponsoring the team (something that we tried very hard to correct), they paid for our fee this year. We did not know if we would be able to compete until that check came, completely unexpectedly, in the mail.

These are not isolated cases. There is a pattern here. Many teams here are constantly on the edge of disappearing, and don't have the resources or knowledge to effectively teach or inspire students.

Yesterday, I was talking with 2220's old faculty adviser, and he told me that going to the Wisconsin regional back in 2007 is the only reason the team came back for another season. I have to imagine that there are a number of teams that are perpetually in that situation.