Is FIRST being cheap!?

[KenWittlief]

we need to understand the difference between 'cheap' and 'profit'.

FIRST is a non-profit organization. That means they are not making ANY money off this program - there are not a bunch of FIRST stockholders somewhere screaming about profits and stock prices.

FIRST has done an incredible job of keeping the registration prices down - you pay $5000 for your first regional and $4000 for each additional regional you attend, and the championship is only $4000.

Since you only get one kit of parts, clearly it costs about $4000 per team to host a event, and the kit is being sold to you for approximately $1000.

so do you want FIRST to go nuts and put all kinds of expensive stuff in the kit - even if your team is not going to use some of it - because the only way FIRST could do that would be to raise the price of the first regional fee - would you rather pay $6000 or $10,000 for your first regional, so you can have a box full of really expensive stuff?

[Gabriel]

I gotta tell you, if a mistake in the drawings of the IR Beacon and tether cables being only female to female are the biggest problems you run into over the next five weeks I envy you. Either figure out how to fix the problem or move on, their are MUCH bigger things to worry about.

[Tom Schindler]

I agree with Ken...

I'm still attempting to figure out how FIRST does all they do for us with only a $5k registration fee per team...

think about the components you get, the motors, the pneumatic components, the controller.... think about how much these would cost if you purchased them all separately, i'd say we're getting a deal...

FIRST isn't making money... I'd rather see FIRST keep with the components they have, and not raise any of their registration fees... i'm happy with the components... who cares if oyu have to assemble your own IR beacon, bite the bullet and do it.

Good Luck

Tom Schindler

[Phish32786]

Same here (Agreeing with Ken) If you had all the parts given to you put together then it wouldn't be as much work/fun as it is now.
Michael Calkins
Team 1188
Network/Systems Administrator