Pros and Cons of the Championship Event.

[JesseK]

This year, 1885 going to Atlanta is not only stressful on our funds, but also stressful on our time. We have something we're doing in addition to FRC and it hits the weekend after Atlanta. We have an idea of how we're going to pull it off and we just gotta stick to the schedule.

Motivated by our Engineering Inspiration Award win at VCU, most of the students got together over their Spring Break to do a bit of fundraising. The funds they raised that day were about 5% of the total cost...not much, but every bit helps. They also have alot of approvals for donations of things they can raffle. I'm not sure exactly what these things are, but the raffle itself can take place after Atlanta and tickets may be sold immediately.

A grant idea is a decent idea in some respects. At most, I would say any grant should cover the registration fee and no more. The paradox is that if your team really is inspiring the local students, community, and businesses then funds to go to the championships shouldn't be that hard to acquire if you put forth the effort. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the community that supports an activity will pay for that activity. Just look at the football team. However, in more rural communities where sponsors are sparse I may understand the sentiment of having an allowed grant. The question is...where do you draw the line? What exactly would qualify a team for this grant?

Do we allow teams with large fundraising opportunities in their community to simply slack and take the easier road of applying for a grant? It is my opinion that we do not. If the team does not go out and advertise their success, they will be hard-pressed to get support from the community. If they don't have support for their community, how can you tell that the team is truely trying to change the culture to be more aligned with sci/tech? It's a tough call I think.

[PhilBot]

Originally Posted by JesseK

Do we allow teams with large fundraising opportunities in their community to simply slack and take the easier road of applying for a grant? It is my opinion that we do not.

I don't want to speek for Bilfred here, but in my case I wasn't proposing that the grant be used for getting to Nationals. My idea was that it could be used to fund a worthwile outreach or technology awareness project, proposed by the team.

I assume that Teams without good community involvement already, don't win Chairmans or Engineering Inspiration awards... So one assumes they are already heavilly tapped into the sponsor loop.

What I'm proposing is that instead of FIRST saying.... "Good Job! you get to pay to go to Nationals".... FIRST could say. "Good Job! can we help you get EVEN MORE outreach with a Grant."

It seems like a much bigger bang for the buck all around. Maybe it could be a matching grant to get the community sponsors even more involved (I come from a rural communuty without large cooporate sponsors, so it's always a grass roots campaign)

Phil.

[EricH]

I like the idea. The problem is finding the partners to do it. I'm sure someone can find something...