Do you think we have enough time?

[AcePilot]

Do you think we have enough time to get enough money to go to the West Michigan Regional? I mean, i have very good people skills and we have a few people we can ask. If you don't think its too late, than i will try.

See, i am a senior, and we have had some money problems this year, and we lost all of our engineers from last year. So our robot is build from 1 big sponsor and is completely student built. So this year we can only afford to go to one competition, but i feel that the team deserves better, i have never loved being with a group of individuals so much, and they do deserve so much better. So i want to personally make sure that they enjoy themselves, especially the other seniors on the team.

I need some opinions.

[Adam Richards]

Originally Posted by AcePilot

Do you think we have enough time to get enough money to go to the West Michigan Regional? I mean, i have very good people skills and we have a few people we can ask. If you don't think its too late, than i will try.

See, i am a senior, and we have had some money problems this year, and we lost all of our engineers from last year. So our robot is build from 1 big sponsor and is completely student built. So this year we can only afford to go to one competition, but i feel that the team deserves better, i have never loved being with a group of individuals so much, and they do deserve so much better. So i want to personally make sure that they enjoy themselves, especially the other seniors on the team.

I need some opinions.

I think the registration for regionals closed months ago. Sorry!

[mtaman02]

First things first


1) do you live anywhere near the venue - this helps eliminate travel and hotel expenses.
2) i thought registration closed for the events or did they move your team to a wait list, if neither then you should be able to register for the event with no problem.

almost half the month gone. if you wanna go for it then i support you all the way.

[AcePilot]

It will still let us regester, and there are open positions.

See our only issue is, we have already had our robot shipped back to our school, so i don't know if they will lets us.

[Shu Song]

I know exactly how that feels. We were short on money this year as well and as a result we could only afford to go to one regional, but after we won FLR, we got more funding can are now sign up for another regional.

Acepilot, I would have everyone on your team get together and formulate a plan on asking EVERY local business fo funding. A Plan is something like, send letter to company, follow up with phone call and meet with company, or something to that affect. Make your situation sound as dire as possible. Tell them of all the wonderful things that FIRST stands for and what your team will do for the community by competing in another regional. Businesses want to hear these things, because they want to know that their money is well place when they give it to you.

Best of luck and I hope you guys get the funds to go!

[KenWittlief]

your robot must be shipped from one event to the next

if it has been send back to your school, you would need to get some kind of exemption from FIRST to allow you to compete.

Have you considered taking all or part of your team to another event just for the day, to observe, or maybe even to assist with the operation of the event itself?

[AcePilot]

Is there some way i can get in touch with the first officials so i can let them know of our special financial situation?

[Ian Curtis]

Well you could email them. (theres an adress somewheres on the first website)

[AcePilot]

Thank you guys so much, i don't even know if half my team knows that i am doing this, but they deserve it so much.

[IMDWalrus]

Originally Posted by AcePilot

Is there some way i can get in touch with the first officials so i can let them know of our special financial situation?

You'd have to check the FIRST website, but there should be an e-mail link or phone number out there somewhere.

Another option would be going to an offseason competition. You're not that far away from Indiana, so IRI is an option. The drive wasn't too bad from Warren, so I'd assume that it'd be about the same from Centerline, what with your city being inside of ours and all.

Most importantly, you'd get around the issues of having to get the money in a short time period and of having had the robot shipped back to your school by going to an offseason event.

[AcePilot]

I have written a letter and haven't sent it yet, i want to know what you guys think, what should be added or subtracted, or if i should just go in a completely new direction with it.

Here it is;

To whom it may concern,

My name is Joshua Lingerfelt and I am part of Team 1447-Mopar and Center Line High School. Last year we decided to take part in First Robotics, and registered our team. This is now our second year, and we got off to an undesired start. We built what was, in my opinion, a First Class Robot, with nothing more than a single sponsor, three engineers, and dedicated students and mentors. With our limited funds we were only able to take part in a single competition. I believe that this group of individuals deserve to take part in more that a single competition, simply because of their hard work and dedication, always keeping in mind the Fundamentals of First. We recently came into more funds, thanks to some more than generous companies. So even though our robot has been shipped back to our school, would it be possible in any way to take part in just one more competition?

I appreciate your organization in taking time to read my letter, and our team is greatly anticipating a response.

Sincerely,

Joshua Lingerfelt
Team 1447-Mopar and Center Line High School

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by AcePilot

I have written a letter and haven't sent it yet, i want to know what you guys think, what should be added or subtracted, or if i should just go in a completely new direction with it.

Here it is;
(...)
Joshua Lingerfelt

Your letter looks good. I'd call, too. You probably want to talk to Bob Hammond, Director FIRST Robotics Competition, (603) 666-3906 x404.

Good luck!

[Donut]

I know how you feel, my team just finished the Arizona Regional with possibly our best robot ever, and we don't want it to go to waste, so we're trying to get into the San Jose or Los Angeles Regional. If you want to try e-mail, you can use this: frcteams@usfirst.org. We already sent an e-mail and will be trying phone if we can't get a response soon.

[AcePilot]

Originally Posted by Donut

I know how you feel, my team just finished the Arizona Regional with possibly our best robot ever, and we don't want it to go to waste, so we're trying to get into the San Jose or Los Angeles Regional. If you want to try e-mail, you can use this: frcteams@usfirst.org. We already sent an e-mail and will be trying phone if we can't get a response soon.

so you are trying the same thing that we are?

[Donut]

Yes, and I'll let you know the response from FIRST as soon as I get it (though I'd still contact them yourself anyway). We want to have another shot without our robot this year so bad, especially since this is most of our club's best members last year in it.