[RCU]: need grant $ for bus to attend FIRST WIST Forum

[mom1155]

Any ideas out there regarding generous donors or women's organizations that might be willing to fund a bus (about $1500) from NYC to the FIRST Women in Science & Tech Forum on Nov 4th? We've never sent a group before and are trying to encourage the young women at our science oriented school to consider Robotics as a career. Just received approval from the principal, if we can pull together the $. Are there any other teams from NYC that are going & want to share the cost of transportation?

[KenWittlief]

how many people would be going from your school? a tour bus can easily hold 50 passengers. $1,500 / 50 = $30 per person

thats not an unreasonable expense for a parent to pay.

[RoboMom]

Contact John Park, the Senior Mentor in NYC at jpark@usfirst.org to see if he has any suggestions and may direct you to Regional Directors Ana Martinez & Randy Schaeffer.
Welcome to Chiefdelphi. Be sure to look over all the threads on fundraising
Consider joining NEMO, a private forum thru ChiefDelphi for all the non-engineering mentors. If you are interested, private message me and I will tell you how to get in.
Contact your local chapter of the society of women engineers.
Good luck.

[tiffany34990]

Hi!

I've sent this question to the RCU International team.... We are looking into some women's groups we have connections with.

But on the meantime, as Robomom has stated try to contact your local SWE chapter and see what they can do. They usually work with the local universities. And you can contact the local colleges and see if the engineering college can help.

In addition you can try to contact your State Commission on the
status of women. In NH, they at times give money out.

We wish you the best of luck and really hope you can make it.

Please Private message me if you have anymore questions and I'll let you know if we find out anything.

[Erin Rapacki]

Originally Posted by tiffany34990

I've sent this question to the RCU International team.... We are looking into some women's groups we have connections with.

But on the meantime, as Robomom has stated try to contact your local SWE chapter and see what they can do. They usually work with the local universities. And you can contact the local colleges and see if the engineering college can help.

In addition you can try to contact your State Commission on the
status of women. In NH, they at times give money out.

However, that may take a lot more time than you have to pull this all together. Contact your local FIRST Senior Mentor or Regional Director to see if they have any rescources already pooled for such things that they could authorize right away. They'll already be familiar with WIST so you won't have to waste time selling it to them. How many RCU memebers from NY want to go?

p.s. If you want to check out Boston on you're way back... Let me know. I too plan on being at WIST.

[mom1155]

Originally Posted by mom1155

Any ideas out there regarding generous donors or women's organizations that might be willing to fund a bus (about $1500) from NYC to the FIRST Women in Science & Tech Forum on Nov 4th? We've never sent a group before and are trying to encourage the young women at our science oriented school to consider Robotics as a career. Just received approval from the principal, if we can pull together the $. Are there any other teams from NYC that are going & want to share the cost of transportation?

Thank you for the ideas so far. Each team can send a maximum of 20 students, so we are planning to send 20 girls and 2 teachers. Received a commitment for 1/2 the bus funding yesterday, if we can get another sponsor to match. Thought about asking parents, but with the conference fee, food, and bus, it would be $80-100 per student & that it is outside our community's reach. Also, we want to be inclusive. Keep the ideas coming. Thanks! Thanks! Thanks!

[Pat Chen]

Originally Posted by mom1155

Thank you for the ideas so far. Each team can send a maximum of 20 students, so we are planning to send 20 girls and 2 teachers. Received a commitment for 1/2 the bus funding yesterday, if we can get another sponsor to match. Thought about asking parents, but with the conference fee, food, and bus, it would be $80-100 per student & that it is outside our community's reach. Also, we want to be inclusive. Keep the ideas coming. Thanks! Thanks! Thanks!

This is a thought....have you spoken to the people in the community? I urged the students on our team to approach the people that their parents do business with...local pet store owners...barber shop...insurance people...dentist....orthrodontist....etc., if you can get at $25-50 from these sources...it will solve your problem. Prepare a brochure...explaining what WIST is all about...teach the girls how to do the 'fund raising' pitch....most of the time...they will write a check out to the student....$750 is alot but yet doable this way....my daughter collected a lot of money ...by going to businesses that we frequent or uses. Good Luck!