Big Big Problem

[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.