Sponsor can we morally seek sponsorship from a brewery

[Jon Stratis]

Ignoring the affects of alcohol for a minute, there is so much that you can use with a brewer to "sell" it to your school, parents, and other stakeholders. Bulk manufacturing technology, some seriously cool chemistry and biology, the affects of different transportation and distribution systems. If it were me, I would start by describing the company in those terms - "There's a company that wants to sponsor the team. They're involved with bulk manufacturing, chemistry, distribution, transportation." Then at the end, once people are saying "wow, sounds like a great fit!", "oh yeah, it's such-and-such brewery".

[Chris is me]

Kind of bugs me that in this society, parents and schools will object to sponsorship by a brewery but not by weapons manufacturers. Personally, I believe the more sponsorship, the merrier. Just like weapons manufacturers don't encourage FIRST students to commit violence, brewery sponsors shouldn't encourage FIRST students to drink, etc.

I would ask relevant authorities, parents, etc. and then if you do get the sponsorship, try and downplay the brewery side of things. Just list them as a beverage company, partial company name, their side charity name, etc.

[Lil' Lavery]

While I perfectly understand the moral objections to defense contractors in a vacuum, I think there's a pretty obvious difference in terms of practical differences between a defense contractor and a brewery. A high school student isn't going to go over to his friends' house and launch a tomahawk missile, but they may go to a party and drink a beer. Alcohol consumption is related to every-day, concrete parenting issues, and it's understandable that educational institutions would have pretty serious reservations about suggesting the appearance of promoting alcohol consumption around minors.

[Eric Scheuing]

Can they sponsor you in non-monetary ways? I'm not suggesting they donate their products (although I'm sure the mentors would appreciate it), but rather have one of their employees teach a workshop on one of the more STEM-focused topics involved in the brewing process. If one of the brewers who is familiar with setting up their equipment is familiar with P&ID's, they could hold a one-night workshop on that, which translates to design of pneumatic systems nicely. Heck, even a talk on the challenges of reliably producing a product that maintains a high standard fits into the requirements of a FIRST team.