1447 HELP!

[AcePilot]

You may be familiar with my other topic, and it basically says that we were in a competition, we performed very well, so we want to get another competition. We needed the approval of FIRST, and worked hard to receive this approval. Now we are presented with another obstacle, we need to come up with the money necessary to attend this competition. We have dreams of attending the Western Michigan Regional, and are unable to do so without sufficient funds and help from other generous parties.

If any teams know of a way to help us out, or know anybody that would be willing to give a much needed boost to our next competition, please contact Team 1447 Mopar and Center Line High School. You can contact us by phone at 1-586-510-2100 or by E-mail at MousseauR@clps.org.

We are greatly anticipating a response, and are looking forward to any help that anybody can offer.

[Steve Yasick]

Have you contacted your local Chamber of Commerce? Have you asked your team members for really good contacts at local companies? Keep on asking for money, don't ask for too much from one person, just keep on asking. Remember, they have to say no.

I can maybe help you with hotel information if you do make it here.

Good Luck
Mr. Yasick

[Kyle]

Send letters to evreyone you know asking for $10- $20 dollars, if everone on you team can do that to about 15 people each you can raise money very fast.

[AcePilot]

Thank you guys very much for your support. We might be contacting you again Mr. Yasick if we do end up going, we will definetly need some hotel advice.

[mark johnson]

Your team definately deserves to go to another regional and would be a shame if you didn't. We were your #8 alliance at the Great Lakes Regional. (910 Bishop Foley Freeze) along with #1596 the Team captain and rookie proceeded to knock off the number 1 seed and were within a few points of playing for the championship. Thankyou 1447 and 1596 for a fine showing in the quarter finals and semi finals.

Our team did a exhibition with the old robot in front of several business owners. It must of worked because the list of our sponsors is long. Good luck and hope to see you at the Western Michigan Regionals.

[AcePilot]

I hope that we can go to, but i dont think you know how hard it is to raise $13,000 in 2 weeks. We are way too short on time, thank you for all of your support, and the finals were great. It was awesome that we ended up upseting the #1 alliance, it was a pleasure being able to compete with you, instead of against you, we were a force to be reckoned with!

[dziurdar]

Originally Posted by AcePilot

You may be familiar with my other topic, and it basically says that we were in a competition, we performed very well, so we want to get another competition. We needed the approval of FIRST, and worked hard to receive this approval. Now we are presented with another obstacle, we need to come up with the money necessary to attend this competition. We have dreams of attending the Western Michigan Regional, and are unable to do so without sufficient funds and help from other generous parties.

If any teams know of a way to help us out, or know anybody that would be willing to give a much needed boost to our next competition, please contact Team 1447 Mopar and Center Line High School. You can contact us by phone at 1-586-510-2100 or by E-mail at MousseauR@clps.org.

We are greatly anticipating a response, and are looking forward to any help that anybody can offer.

Josh,
As your mentor teacher, I can say I am proud of team 1447 and your efforts to raise the funds for the team to go to another event. good luck, and don't give up.

[Jessica Boucher]

Other than hitting up the rotary club/chamber of commerce/school board (which has already been mentioned), here's what I would suggest.

1.) Play the "6 Degrees of Separation" game with your team. Sit everyone down (students, mentors, et al) and make a listing of where everyone (or their parents, for the students) works. Write them all down on a big whiteboard/piece of paper. Then work one step beyond: Where does everyone's relatives work/have worked? If multiples start showing up, just make a note of how many connections you have with that company. Then, move one step further and ask whom everyone knows in the area that are in high-level positions in their company. At this point you should be able to have a good list of companies to pull from, whom will be already emotionally involved somehow because they know someone on the team.

This is the process that Babson uses to get Commencement speakers; we got Ted Turner to speak at Commencement 2002 because come to find out, his goddaughter was getting her undergraduate degree that year....but the connection wasn't made until the committee actually sat down and said "who do we know?"

2.) If that doesnt work...
http://premium.hoovers.com/subscribe...it eDisplay=P

Here's a listing of all the major corporations in the Warren-Detroit area. Let me know if the link doesn't work for you and I'll export the list.

Also:
http://www.city-data.com/city/Center-Line-Michigan.html I would suggest adding the local press/tv & radio stations listed here to the list of companies to contact, as well as the colleges listed.

3.) Research company addresses/names of executives (www.hoovers.com is your friend!). Companies are more likely to read a letter if it's actually addressed to someone in the company.

4.) This would be the point where I would suggest a mail merge & letter stuffing party. With your shortened time frame, however, I would suggest utilizing email if you can find their email. If not, then mail companies closer to you (Warren area) as opposed to further out.

If it takes you more than 30 min to drive there, it's not worth it at this point unless your team has a personal connection (what you found in step 1). According to the City Data link I posted above, the mean drive time to work for people in Center Line is 27 minutes. Thus, it is safe to assume that any company within 30 min driving distance would know of Center Line because they are more likely to have someone who works with them from there.

5.) Follow-up call on all the companies you contact. Grab a couple bottles of Mountain Dew, make a bag of popcorn and have a phoneathon with your teammates. Introduce yourself (I am <name> calling from the Center Line robotics team), ask if they recieved the letter, and if they would be interested in giving any size donation. Mention that you have a shortened time frame and that the community is getting behind you guys since it is so exceptional that such a young team could accomplish so much in a short amount of time. I can help with a scrpit if you need it.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out!

[AcePilot]

Originally Posted by Jessica Boucher

Other than hitting up the rotary club/chamber of commerce/school board (which has already been mentioned), here's what I would suggest.

1.) Play the "6 Degrees of Separation" game with your team. Sit everyone down (students, mentors, et al) and make a listing of where everyone (or their parents, for the students) works. Write them all down on a big whiteboard/piece of paper. Then work one step beyond: Where does everyone's relatives work/have worked? If multiples start showing up, just make a note of how many connections you have with that company. Then, move one step further and ask whom everyone knows in the area that are in high-level positions in their company. At this point you should be able to have a good list of companies to pull from, whom will be already emotionally involved somehow because they know someone on the team.

This is the process that Babson uses to get Commencement speakers; we got Ted Turner to speak at Commencement 2002 because come to find out, his goddaughter was getting her undergraduate degree that year....but the connection wasn't made until the committee actually sat down and said "who do we know?"

2.) If that doesnt work...
http://premium.hoovers.com/subscribe...it eDisplay=P

Here's a listing of all the major corporations in the Warren-Detroit area. Let me know if the link doesn't work for you and I'll export the list.

Also:
http://www.city-data.com/city/Center-Line-Michigan.html I would suggest adding the local press/tv & radio stations listed here to the list of companies to contact, as well as the colleges listed.

3.) Research company addresses/names of executives (www.hoovers.com is your friend!). Companies are more likely to read a letter if it's actually addressed to someone in the company.

4.) This would be the point where I would suggest a mail merge & letter stuffing party. With your shortened time frame, however, I would suggest utilizing email if you can find their email. If not, then mail companies closer to you (Warren area) as opposed to further out.

If it takes you more than 30 min to drive there, it's not worth it at this point unless your team has a personal connection (what you found in step 1). According to the City Data link I posted above, the mean drive time to work for people in Center Line is 27 minutes. Thus, it is safe to assume that any company within 30 min driving distance would know of Center Line because they are more likely to have someone who works with them from there.

5.) Follow-up call on all the companies you contact. Grab a couple bottles of Mountain Dew, make a bag of popcorn and have a phoneathon with your teammates. Introduce yourself (I am <name> calling from the Center Line robotics team), ask if they recieved the letter, and if they would be interested in giving any size donation. Mention that you have a shortened time frame and that the community is getting behind you guys since it is so exceptional that such a young team could accomplish so much in a short amount of time. I can help with a scrpit if you need it.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out!

Thank very much Jessica, you sound like you are very expierenced with fundraising. We will end up doing some of the things that you guys have suggested. We are hoping so bad that we can do this.

All i can say is wish us luck, i will keep you all updated.

[AcePilot]

We tried, but we couldn't get it done. We all tried our hardest but couldn't come up with the money for Fed-Ex to ship it to the next competition. We have money for Fed-Ex, but we won't have enough for the competition, so there is no point to ship the robot there. I now have to call the meeting and let the team know that we will not be attending the competition.

I hope they have better luck next year raising money. Thank you all for your help and suggestions, they were not overlooked. Good luck to all the teams.

[Jim Kosaski]

Originally Posted by AcePilot

We tried, but we couldn't get it done. We all tried our hardest but couldn't come up with the money for Fed-Ex to ship it to the next competition. We have money for Fed-Ex, but we won't have enough for the competition, so there is no point to ship the robot there. I now have to call the meeting and let the team know that we will not be attending the competition.

I hope they have better luck next year raising money. Thank you all for your help and suggestions, they were not overlooked. Good luck to all the teams.

I am so proud of the effort that you put forth in trying to acquire the funds necessary to make it to another competition. You and the other students who tried hard to get the money should be proud of yourselves for not quitting before you tried. I will see you at the meeting.

[Vin211]

You need money! The more time you take talking things over the more money you will lose. Stand outside grocery stores and get change. Have a bake sale, host a car wash, promote a pancake breakfast, fundraise with a pasta dinner! Of course, there's nothing wrong with trying to get sponsors. Always aim high!