Big Big Problem

[sciguy125]

Originally Posted by Ronald_raygun

Our school has unfortunately banned the clubs to solicit for donations. (sponsorship, basically) Has anyone thought of a way to circumvent this?

At our school, we're not allowed to solicit either. As far as I know, no student organizations are allowed to. Clubs are allowed to have on-campus fundraisers though. We've talked to the administration about this several times, but it's all about politics. If we ask some company for $10k, the school won't be able to ask them for $50k later on for other things. And we're not allowed to solicit parents either. The rule is that we're not allowed to ask. But, if they happen to find out about us and donate something, they can request that their donation go directly to the robotics club. Again, we're not allowed to ask for donations, but if they find out that we are in need and want to give us something it would be rude to refuse them.

If we wanted full autonomy to be free to solicit donations, we won't be allowed to associate ourselves with the school. We could probably still use the facilities, but not the name.

Edit:
Addendum: We also found something interesting. Each club gets some amount of money from the school. The robotics club was an off shoot of the science club. I don't know if it's still true this year, but last year, both clubs existed on paper. Therefore, both clubs got money even though they were the same organization. This money is also in addition to the money the school throws our way for FIRST.

[Ronald_raygun]

Thank you everyone for your quick reply.

A booster club may be the answer, but I'll run it by my co.

Getting our robotics club classified as a team is possible, but unlikely.

The Parent Teacher's Association doesn't help much except hold our money. Sure I may be able to speak with the heads.

The only thing that the school provides is a facility to store and build the robot. We are still allowed to use those facilities. The main hurdle is that we cannot solicit various companies for donations. (Sponsorships they do consifer donations)

Negotiating with the admins seems the best way to go. But first I need to find out who made the rule.


Changing the name of our team may help. But I'm not too familiar with FIRST's policy about changing team's names and therefore losing the ability to pre register year after year after year. (I'm on Team 19)

[sciguy125]

Originally Posted by sciguy125

Again, we're not allowed to ask for donations, but if they find out that we are in need and want to give us something it would be rude to refuse them.

I'd like to correct that. It still holds true that if someone wants to give us money they can. If they send it through the school and they put "for robotics" on the check, we get all the money. Actually, I have a feeling that they're supposed to send all checks through the school.

However, it seems that we are allowed to solicit for donations if we clear it with the school first. The whole reason for the ban is that no student organizations are supposed to interfere with the school's target donors (present and future). If the school doesn't have any plans for our potential sponsor, they'll give us an OK to talk to them. It seems, however, that most of our potential sponsors won't be approached by the school. It looks like, at the moment, our moderator wants services and equipment rather than just money. We'll probably be targeting machine shops and high-tech companies. While the school has targeted some tech companies (I think I spotted Xilinx and Intel on some plaques), they seem to like wealthy individuals more.

[mechanicalbrain]

Originally Posted by sciguy125

The whole reason for the ban is that no student organizations are supposed to interfere with the school's target donors (present and future). If the school doesn't have any plans for our potential sponsor, they'll give us an OK to talk to them.

Funny, one of our larger sponsors (PEC) also is our schools main donor.... I guess were lucky because that money is really usefull!

[sciguy125]

Originally Posted by mechanicalbrain

Funny, one of our larger sponsors (PEC) also is our schools main donor.... I guess were lucky because that money is really usefull!

Well, that's the thing, if they are giving you money, that means they are giving the school less money. Any money that goes to the school is allocated by the school. Any money that goes directly to us can only be used by us. It's just as easy to get $100k for the school (from a large company) as it is to get $10k for the robotics team (from that same company). If we ask them for money, they might be less inclined to give the school the other $90k they could have had. It's not fair for a group of 20+ students to spend $10k in one year if the school could buy $100k worth of stuff for all the students that will last for several years. However, the school can find a way to kick some extra money from the budget our way as long as they have control of it.

However, our team, against my strong opposition, seems to have doubled in size this year. I suspect that it's because of the newly created administrative branch and a large freshman interest. The school may be inclined to give us more money. If we get enough people, maybe they'll even give us a room that's bigger and not underground (and preferably not one of the above-ground rooms that still doesn't have windows).

Before you question why I don't want more people despite saying that I do, it's just because it happened too soon. We're in the middle of a massive restructuring process. A lot of people don't seem to understand how massive this change is and kept bringing people in. We're still disorganized and there's lots of new people to deal with. None of the lower level positions, where these people will end up, are ready to be filled. We've had meetings (as in "everyone get in the other room, we need to talk" meetings) every club meeting since school started. I'm afraid a lot of the newbies will leave if they get too bored before we get organized again. At least one of the new guys was questioning why we have abandoned democracy, and many of them don't seem to realize that we have. Every detail of the new structure has been planned for a reason (mostly experience). If they feel left out because we ignore their opinion, they might leave also. To bring this back to funding, if we lose people, and they tell their friends about their bad experiences, we might start to lose more people and possibly funding along with them.