What can FIRST do to increase FRC team sustainability?

[techhelpbb]

Personally believe bag&tag is doing no favors to anyone.

1. It ends up creating duplicate robots driving cost.

2. Team issues aside: the increasing reliance on COTS parts sourced from over seas means you are in risky territory with vendors in just 6 weeks.
So...
If COTS parts make it easier to field a robot and COTS parts are easier to get in 7 weeks...one leads to the other.

3. If COTS parts can build almost an entire robot and teams plan on doing that their logistics are governed by vendor availability not planning their fabrication.

4. Teams in places like NYC often do not have shops they require a lot of COTS.

5. There are few high value modern skills you will teach in that slightly longer time: however if you teach those skills between seasons you can expect more time to practice on an FRC robot headed for a field instead of other things.

I routinely stump for FIRST at Meetups: I have watched people lose all interest over that 6 week lurch of a build season. Good qualified people want to help - but - not at the expense of an unpaid fire drill.