Team budgets?

[Otaku]

Alright guys, well I'm in a team meeting right now and we've talked very briefly about our budget. Mainly, we need some help with ours. As a team that's trying to go to two regionals and also championships, we want to have a good idea of how much money that we'll have to raise for us to be able to afford everything, such as entry fees, travel costs, hotel prices, and so forth.

The two regionals we want to go to are Davis and SVR. We're in Rohnert Park, and have to take public transportation (for instance, we took CalTrain down to SVR) or rent a bus to get to places. As well as hotel costs for up to 30-40 people.

Now, I'm not asking you all to do the math for us (unless of course you want to), but rather to go ahead and share your budgets with us so we can better manage our finances and raise enough money for all of our costs.

Thanks,
Michael Baker & All of 675

[JohnBoucher]

Round numbers = $50,000

$20,000 in hard costs, two regionals and championship

This is for a group of 30.

The balance of $30,000 is for travel, uniforms and everything else.

[Taylor]

This year, we figure $10k for one in-state regional, $15k for one out-of-state regional, and $20k for both. Smallish team (~20 members), won't pay for travel, food or lodging if we do in-state.

[Billfred]

To mark the low end of the spectrum, 1618's budget from last season (2006, with one event) was right at $10,000, including food, uniforms, parts, and other materials. The event was local, and as such we didn't have any travel expense.

[IndySam]

Last year for one in state and one out of state regional and the championship our budget was $30k. We traveled with about 30 members.

[techtiger1]

Your going to need about $30,000 or more to pull off two regionals and championships. Everyone is about right with there estimates here. Good question to get feedback on.

-Drew

[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).

[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).

[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.