How many regionals is your team attending?

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by AJunx

After reading somewhere that a team will be attending 3 regional competitions as well as nationals this year, I became very curious as to how many regionals each team will be competing in.

I'm sure I could find that information at usfirst.org, but the reason for this thread is that I would like to know the reasoning behind each team's decision to attend [insert # here] regionals.

I would also like to know how teams that attend more than one regional pay for such a venture. I'm sure some teams do their own fund-raising, others have solid corporate sponsorship, others have university grants, and so on. But even so, attending additional regional competitions isn't cheap ($4,000 a pop after the first one) and add a trip to Atlanta for nationals at $5,000 and you've got yourself one hefty budget. Of course, that doesn't even include any of the travel expenses associated with hauling, accommodating, and feeding a team ranging in size from 4 to 60 people. If your team doesn't do fund-raising to pay for additional regional competitions, how do you convince your sponsor(s) to throw down an extra $4,000 so your team can go to a second, third, or even a fourth regional? This question seems all the more relevant if your team is already planning to attend nationals.

So, in short, please let us know:

• WHY your team will be attending 1, 2, 3, or more regionals this year
• HOW your team will be paying to attend more than one regional (if you do so)

Thanks in advance.

-Andrew

No one can attend more than 3.

[psquared89]

Team 245 was originally going to three regionals and no nationals, but after winning two of our three so far, we've made the (expensive) decision to go to nationals.

[psquared89]

Team 245 was originally going to three regionals and no nationals, but after winning two of our three so far, we've made the (expensive) decision to go to nationals.

[Katie Reynolds]

Just FYI --

The two "How many regionals are you attending" threads have been merged, here.

[the_short1]

team 1596 is going to toronto and great lakes.. we wanted two chances for fun (we never imagined we would do so well at great lakes regional<let alone go to nationals.. ) and so all the team members could experience something really cool outside of their native land (since we are canadia/us split team).. ..

we are currently crunching numbers and trying to get 25K USD for our trip to atlanta. . we already have enuf for toronto have for a while..thanks to Convergence,GM,lego, algoma steel.... .. and lots small donations / personal funraisers (like pasties, blinkies (little magnetic blinking things), and tin foil /saran wrap 1000 foot rolls )

so far we only have 12K outa 25k for atlanta .. but its looking hopefull as we JUST received 10k from a indian band near sault michigan due to a native member of our team. .Thank you .. phew.. a little stress releaved when we got that . .

[Daniel Brim]

For us, 2 regionals and then championships. We went to AZ and are going to SoCal next week (it's within segway distance ). We are also going to championships with a limited team. To raise money, we have corporate sponsors (go NGST!) and fundraisers (one actually lost us money... funny story behind that but it doesn't belong here). Also, since we don't have much money left, we are charging each student $500+ to go to Atlanta.

[jessica_c]

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our team is attending two regionals - Boilermaker Regional and also the
West Michigan Regional also we will be attending nationals

[sdexp]

We too, like team 007, are only attending the Chesapeake Regional. Until our team garners enough internal drive to actually go for the awards involved with FIRST, we will stick with going to just one regional because that is all we need to develop the skills we need to participate in FIRST Robotics.

[KORN_lover_2007]

Team 1108 went to one regional, Boilermaker regional, because we don't have the money to go to more. I'm pretty sure we're going to nationals, although we still have a lot of money to raise. I would tell you how we're going to raise that money, but we have a meeting tonight about that so I can't tell you at the moment.

[Ali Ahmed]

We are going to 2 regionals plus Nats. Actually we are in SVR right now. We do summer camps to help raise the money.

[S.Nickens]

Originally Posted by AJunx

After reading somewhere that a team will be attending 3 regional competitions as well as nationals this year, I became very curious as to how many regionals each team will be competing in.

I'm sure I could find that information at usfirst.org, but the reason for this thread is that I would like to know the reasoning behind each team's decision to attend [insert # here] regionals.

I would also like to know how teams that attend more than one regional pay for such a venture. I'm sure some teams do their own fund-raising, others have solid corporate sponsorship, others have university grants, and so on. But even so, attending additional regional competitions isn't cheap ($4,000 a pop after the first one) and add a trip to Atlanta for nationals at $5,000 and you've got yourself one hefty budget. Of course, that doesn't even include any of the travel expenses associated with hauling, accommodating, and feeding a team ranging in size from 4 to 60 people. If your team doesn't do fund-raising to pay for additional regional competitions, how do you convince your sponsor(s) to throw down an extra $4,000 so your team can go to a second, third, or even a fourth regional? This question seems all the more relevant if your team is already planning to attend nationals.

So, in short, please let us know:

• WHY your team will be attending 1, 2, 3, or more regionals this year
• HOW your team will be paying to attend more than one regional (if you do so)

Thanks in advance.

-Andrew

Our team just finished the NJ regional, the first of two we’re attending. We’re returning to Palmetto next week. The site of our first ever regional win (2004). Then off to nationals. We had a tough blow to the team when our major sponsor included us in their downsizing efforts which reduced us to having just enough for the KOP and maybe one regional, but due to the hard work of some students and mentors, we managed to secure a new corporate sponsor (DPC).
Along with our sponsors, DPC, Givaudan, and BAE Systems, the team hosts a fund raising FLL Competition. A parent meeting gets us volunteers to work, make and sell food, referee, set-up etc.. The SCET (Student Core Engineering Team) put together a HALO 2 competition at the school (including awards and prizes) to offset travel expenses. The team also talked to local businesses and convinced them to offer discounts and donate a percentage of sales to the team.
Last year after we won our first regional (our third event that year), the students made a presentation to the school board and convinced them give us the funds for our entrance fee to nationals.
Its also important to look for companies that can donate materials like raw stock, computers, software, wiring, graphics, etc., so you can save what money you do have for regionals.
Try to get as much exposure as possible. The team has marched in parades, been at the opening of the movie Robots at one of the local theaters, company picnics where CEO’s and their kids could drive the robot. The more people you can get involved, the more resources are available to you.
There is money and resources out there for teams involved in a program that is as special as FIRST. You just have to find out where its hiding.
To answer the question as to why attend more than one event. Its FIRST! If we could, I’m sure our team would go to every regional if it was possible. Even though the build is only six weeks, we work all year.
Good luck!
p.s. Thanks to all our sponsors.
Sorry for the long post.

[EricH]

330 is going to two regionals and nationals. We did Sacramento, now we're waiting for LA. After LA, nationals for the eighth or ninth time, depending how you count it. If you can remember when nationals was the only competition, we started back then and so far haven't missed a single one since we started. Whether we'll miss next year's remains to be seen.

[Bruce C.]

Originally Posted by KORN_lover_2007

Team 1108 went to one regional, Boilermaker regional, because we don't have the money to go to more. I'm pretty sure we're going to nationals, although we still have a lot of money to raise. I would tell you how we're going to raise that money, but we have a meeting tonight about that so I can't tell you at the moment.

Team 647, The CyberWolves, will miss you guys at the Lone Star Regional this year. It seems we have been either alliance partners or opponents in the eliminations each year you have been there. Good luck at Nationals!

[master]

Our team is going to one regional and no nationals (we cant afford it)

[Yan Wang]

We went into this season with the expectation of attending one regional. After winning it, we got funds to go back to the Greater Toronto Regional. And now, as of today, we have the funds for Championships.

2 Regionals + Championships