Vex Announcement: FIRST Vex Challenge Extended for 2006-2007

[skimoose]

Originally Posted by nonother

This is great news. I'm a junior in high school in New Jersey and I discovered Vex along with a friend in December. Since then we've been enjoying building robots on the weekend. We're excited at the possibility of getting involved with F.I.R.S.T. My only question is: do we need high school support? We are extremely unlikely to get any of it. If not, I hope to be there at the College of New Jersey in December

No, you don't need school support to have a FVC team!

I ran a FIRST LEGO League team for two seasons out of my home for my own kids and their friends. FVC is a similar format to FLL, you simply need from 4 - 10 students for a team. If you and three other friends are want to compete, you're half way there. It would be advisable to have a parent or other dedicated adult to act as a coach to handle the financial, travel, and other non-robotics needs of the team. This adult doesn't need to be an engineer, have knowledge of robotics, or even have to learn anything about robotics. See KathieK's and RoboMom's Non Engineering Mentors Organization known as NEMO to learn more on what this adult might need to take care of.

What you will need are sponsors! If costs stay roughly the same as this year here's what your team would be looking at for expenses:

FIRST team registration - $200
Tournament registration - $300 per event.
team t-shirts/uniforms - $10-13 per shirt through local silk screening companies. Uniforms are not mandatory, but most teams want an identity.
Vex starter kit - $300 if you don't already have one.
Vex battery kit - $40 mandatory for competitions, sorry no AA batteries.
Vex programming kit $100 - you'll also need the EasyC 2.0 upgrade or MPLabs if you wish to program in that environment.
Other vex products - up to $500 you'll need more than the starter kit to build a robot. This number will depend on what you already own and what you'll need, want, or can afford.
Travel to a tournament - $??? The events should be one day competitions so you won't need hotel stays unless you're travelling long distances. Figure on a 7:00 AM until 5:00 PM stay at the competition. if you can drive to the event with this in mind you shouldn't need a hotel, but you'll still need gas, food, and other travel expenses.
Engineering notebook and other supplies $50-100 you'll need a team engineering notebook and then there are office supplies for banners, spirit handouts, scouting forms, pit decorations, team decorations, and robot decorations as desired, but these are optional.
Playing field components - $500+ playing field components are optional, if you can find another team locally that has a practice field you can use. You don't need to build a full field either. There are always low cost versions which can be built with materials purchased at Home Depot, but you will still need some components so that you can test your robot and practice.

And Lastly, If you're lucky enough to win at a local tournament,
Championships Registration - $1000 competing at the championships is optional, and doesn't need to be factored into your regular budget.
Travel expenses to Championships in Atlanta - $?????? this is all dependent on distance traveled, number of team members travelling to Championships, etc. Again, I wouldn't budget any Championships costs into your regular budget. If your team is lucky enough to become eligible to attend the Championships, you can have separate fundraisers to covers these expenses, but I just include these numbers so you're not shocked later on.

So with the above budget numbers in mind, you can expect that a team will need a budget of $1200 - 2000 on average, again not including any Championships costs. A little less if you already own all the necessary vex components, and a little more if teams are allowed to attend multiple events this coming year or you want to build an expensive practice field.

So having school support would greatly help, but isn't necessary. You can fund a team through fundraisers, local PTO organizations might help with funding, parent's companies/employers, local businesses, or even local civic groups like the Lions Club, Jaycees, Rotary Club, etc, or try to find a FRC team in your area who might be able to help start your team. Get your team in the local newspaper early on, especially if you need sponsors, and don't write off school support without trying. If you compete without school support, get the team in the news after a competition, too. After getting good coverage in the local news, you may find that the school system will suddenly find funding to support the team in the future.

Finally, this is a call to all existing FRC teams. This is part of Dean's homework. Help new Vex teams get started in your area. If every active FRC team started just one team, that would be as many as 11,000 new students and 1100 new school systems joining FIRST. Now that's growth!

How about a New Jersey FRC team adopting nonother's group to form a FVC team. What about one of our sister Bristol Myers Squibb teams? Any takers?