Florida FRC Funding

[AlexD744]

I wanted to share this great news about funding for FRC in Florida from the state government. Each FRC team in Florida will receive $2000 towards their registration, thus lowering the barrier for teams to enter and continue to compete.

This article goes through the process that we underwent in Florida. Part of that process was using the funding in Michigan and Minnesota as examples, so hopefully other teams can use this as an example to get state funding in their own states.

https://firstfl.org/2016/10/18/state...ding-for-2017/

[marshall]

Originally Posted by AlexD744

I wanted to share this great news about funding for FRC in Florida from the state government. Each FRC team in Florida will receive $2000 towards their registration, thus lowering the barrier for teams to enter and continue to compete.

This article goes through the process that we underwent in Florida. Part of that process was using the funding in Michigan and Minnesota as examples, so hopefully other teams can use this as an example to get state funding in their own states.

https://firstfl.org/2016/10/18/state...ding-for-2017/

This is very cool! Excellent work to all the people who made this happen.

[MARS_James]

If any team who is eligible to take this grant doesn't I will be very upset, all it takes is sending one letter with two thank you cards in it. I hope there is a table at both regionals with a sign saying "Are you a Florida FRC Team? Want an easy $2000?" then there is preaddressed envelopes (stamps provided based on funding =P) so there is litterally 0 excuse.

This makes me happy for what it could mean down the road especially if (when) we go to districts, it could mean $3000 for veteran teams to do 2 their two districts which would be amazing.

[AlexD744]

Originally Posted by MARS_James

If any team who is eligible to take this grant doesn't I will be very upset, all it takes is sending one letter with two thank you cards in it. I hope there is a table at both regionals with a sign saying "Are you a Florida FRC Team? Want an easy $2000?" then there is preaddressed envelopes (stamps provided based on funding =P) so there is litterally 0 excuse.

This makes me happy for what it could mean down the road especially if (when) we go to districts, it could mean $3000 for veteran teams to do 2 their two districts which would be amazing.

So, I'm not the expert (if you know Lauren, she handled a lot of the policy stuff), but because of the way the money was allocated, it is only guaranteed for this year. However, that being said, we are hoping that since the ball is now moving on this, it will be easier to secure funding in the future (and hopefully more!). But that's part of the reason why the thank you notes are so important!

I believe an email about this was sent to team leads some weeks ago, so hopefully everyone knows, but make sure to spread the word, just in case!

[tjwolter]

Wisconsin is sort of jumping on the bandwagon. This year there is a one year only matching grant for robotics teams. Not just FRC, other high school level programs qualify as well. Matches up to 5K which could come in very handy.

Alas, our team is out of luck. FIRST is OK with an 8th grader on the team but the grant is written in a way that makes it a deal breaker for us on that account. Hopefully it proves popular enough that it comes back next year.

sigh.

TW

[ehochstein]

Originally Posted by AlexD744

Part of that process was using the funding in Michigan and Minnesota as examples, so hopefully other teams can use this as an example to get state funding in their own states.

Minnesota does not receive any funding for teams from the state government to my knowledge. It would be great if you could prove me wrong

[runneals]

I will say that programs (not just funding FIRST) that fund STEAM programs in general are seeming to become relatively popular. In Iowa we have the Iowa Governor's STEM Advisory Council with their STEM Scale-Up grant that has started hundreds of FLL and FTC teams since 2013 and has now moved onto starting new FRC teams by providing them $8,000 ($6,000 registration fee + $2,000 coach stipend)!!! It's exciting to see governors both democrat and republican put money up (in Iowa it's been ~$5.2 million/year) for the importance of STEM education programs for both in school and after school programs!

[Arefin Bari]

Alex,

I don't believe anyone has expressed how grateful we are to Team 744 for making this happen. I know you guys have been working on this project for several years. We, team 108, appreciate everything that you and your team have done for us in the past/present and what you are doing to make FRC a better experience for all involved students in Florida. Thank you.

[StAxis]

Thank you for this fantastic work in helping make FIRST happen in Florida! This is a huge step. I am excited to see where this goes and would love to help keep the ball rolling!