What do you feel about the growth of FIRST?

[Gene F]

I firmly believe there can be a FIRST team in every high school. I read in this thread that money is a great concern. Well let's put it in perspective. Most high schools in our country support at least one sports team. The cost of having a sports team is about the same as a FIRST Robotics team. Look at the cost of their equipment, playing fields, transportation, etc. It easily equals, if not exceeds, the cost of running a FIRST team. Also there are many schools that have Marching bands. These too have budgets that rival what it takes to run a robotics team.

What's the answer?


PUBLIC AWARENESS!!

We need to be using every means at our disposal to get our communities involved in FIRST. How about a home coming celebration when the team returns from Nationals, complete with a parade, floats, dances, etc? How many people from your community are you getting to come to your regional competitions? Take every chance you get to get the team in the paper and on the news. Post signs around the community supporting the team. Encourage your team members to wear their team colors in public and be willing to explain what FIRST is all about. Take every opportunity you get to show your robot to the community and give out nifty trinkets.

The money doesn't have to come from big corporations, it can come from many small contributions.

If everyone in the community sees what FIRST is all about money will not be a problem. Both for more teams and more regionals.