Team budgets?

[DonRotolo]

The estimates above are right.

We have a somewhat smaller budget, but team members are expected to pay for lodging, food and transportation for all travel (though this is partly subsidized by the team).

2 regionals & Championship = $16k in fixed costs.
Add $5k for the robot supplies
Add $4k for associated expenses - shirts, buttons, you-name-it
The rest (I'd estimate $45k total) is travel.

You CAN do this cheaper! Donated materials, donated labor, donated food & Mountain Dew, etc all help, not everything has to be a check. Like 1618 noted, even a bunch of sub-$1k donations can get it done.

IMHO the championship is the budget buster, it involves flying.

Don

[MrForbes]

we just started a non-profit association to help raise the $50k-$75k that we estimate the NERDS will need this year. Current balance in the checking account is a tad low, like not far from zero.

[JB987]

Team 987 attended our in town LVR, one out of state to SVR and of course Championships in Atlanta (both with airfair associated and hotel costs paid by the club for about 24 people) and it cost us about $50,000...that's a lot of yard sales and sponsorships!

[KTorak]

I don't know how many teams actually pay for the travel of the students, but we don't. Which saves A LOT. However, we also do individual fundraisers so most students don't end up paying anything if we stay in a hotel. The best one is the Kroger card. You load a re-loadable gift card and 5% of whatever you put on it/use is given back to you on your team account for travel expenses. We also get 99% of parts/labor donated (we do most machining in house by the students unless is complicated and sent out to our sponsor). The only other expenses are what we pay to FIRST and other PR type stuff (buttons, etc).

[Doug G]

Hi Michael!! We too are shooting for about $25,000 to do two regionals and nationals (if we can get in) this year. Last year we did $20,000 for two regionals (one local and one out of state). So far we are only at about $8,000 - so far to go, so little time. Our team usually has about 30 students attending the local competition and about 20 attending the out of state ones. Unless we have extra money, students usually have to pay their own travel. Last year, we had extra so they only had to pay for half their travel. Good luck.

[Kelly]

Last year it was $11,000 for entry fees: one regional and championships.
Less than $1500 for everything else. Team members pay for their own travel. Which in the case of our team was really cheap because parents donated time/gas money to drive and we found cheap hotels/stayed with relatives during the competitions. When we went to Atlanta, one of our team member's grandparents were nice enough to let the team crash at their house.

[AdamHeard]

Does the team really have to pay for everyone's travel?

Our team hasn't done that in years, and it saves the team a whole lot of money.

Well, actually, we did pay for 1-2 kids each year that truly couldn't afford it.

Every other traveling sport has the kids pay for themselves usually, with the option to fundraise it. The kids on our team that have received scholarships to go usually fund raised more than that amount themselves anyway.

[JohnBoucher]

The team members earn money toward their travel accounts, If there is not enough, they pay the balance.
Money does not carry over year to year.

[Otaku]

Thanks to everybody who posted. We basically expected to need 50k or so, and from what I see here, it confirms this.

Thanks,
Otaku & All of 675

You don't really need 50K...

Team 114 operates yearly on an average of 30K. We do three regionals, but it's not that much different to stretch that up to be two regionals and Champs, which is actually what we're thinking of doing this year. 16K goes into competitions, fixed. Next up is the bot, which is actually like 5k realistically. The other 9k goes to keeping the program running, which means paying for tools that break, supplies for side projects, and shipping and so on. The students pay their own travel fees, which actually doesn't come out to that much. We fly up to PNW, and the whole trip usually rounds out to 500 per student. It's a bit stiff, but it's our favorite regional (IMHO, the best in the US!). SVR is local to us, so team members drive individually there. The Davis regional, near Sacramento, we all caravan down in buses, so hotel and food is all that needs to be paid. That usually comes out to 100-150 per student, with a bit of budgeting.

Our team operates on that budget by not paying for student travels. However, in the past we've had members who can't pay for the trip, and are an essential part of the team. When that happens, the team will then pay for that student.

50k is a little overkill, though it's a nice budget to shoot for.

[Madison]

I have some rough numbers for our 2007 competition season budget, but nothing that captures our annual expenses. We attended two regionals -- both "away" -- and the Championship event as a qualifying team. Because we were eligible to compete in Atlanta as a result of performance, we paid through the nose for transportation, particularly. This budget also includes a lot of expenses that most teams here haven't mentioned or don't have to worry about. We provide door-to-door transportation to meetings for students (and mentors, for that matter) that don't have a way of getting there on their own, we feed about thirty people three or four times a week for about three months since most of us go straight to meetings from work and don't have a chance to eat dinner, and we pay for about 75% of student travel expenses and 100%* of mentor travel expenses as many of our students could not otherwise afford to travel with the team.

Altogether, we spent about $80,000 during the competition season. $15,000 in FIRST fees, ~$35,000 in travel expenses, ~$10,000 for meals, ~$5,000 for robot parts, ~$5000 for marketing and recruitment, and $10,000 on who knows what else -- incidental costs like shipping crate, shipping overages, team building parties at regional events, etc.

*Though the team pays for mentor travel expenses, we are funded almost entirely through participating, as a 401(c)3 organization, in donation-matching and time-for-money giving programs at Microsoft, Boeing and Federated Department Stores. Student are responsible for fundraising to meet their travel expenses as much as possible, so that helps us to offset these enormous additional costs. We allow them to pay the team back throughout the year, however, rather than require that they do so before being allowed to travel.

[JB987]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Does the team really have to pay for everyone's travel?

Our team hasn't done that in years, and it saves the team a whole lot of money.

Well, actually, we did pay for 1-2 kids each year that truly couldn't afford it.

Every other traveling sport has the kids pay for themselves usually, with the option to fundraise it. The kids on our team that have received scholarships to go usually fund raised more than that amount themselves anyway.

Since the students and mentors and advisors are the team, no money is "saved" by charging the team members to travel. The team members that work hard to raise money for the team have earned the right to travel with only spending money coming out of their pockets...at least that is 987's philosophy. We have found that it is easier to hold on to team members if they don't have to hit up their parents for travel money, etc...

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

Like 1618 noted, even a bunch of sub-$1k donations can get it done.

To be proper, Richland One supplied the entry fee ($6,000); we received one $2,000 donation, one $500 donation, and I personally received a $500 grant through the University of South Carolina for a robot-related project (of which about $485 was used on parts for Uppercut).