FIRST has $8 Million?!? What did I miss?

[The Lucas]

Originally Posted by 1075guy

The one that's always gotten me was the extra $4000 for extra regionals/championships. That to me seems like using the richer teams to subsidize the poorer ones, which I personally don't really agree with.

Every time someone argues about how teams shouldn't be allowed to attend multiple regionals, I have to fight the urge not to simply repost this as they obviously don't see the . This pricing structure (multiple event teams subsidize single event teams) makes perfect sense when you look at FIRST's goal of growth. The cost of the kit is one of the biggest obstacles to starting new teams. A higher kit price would stunt growth. Teams attending multiple regionals also increases the number of regionals which helps FIRST grow in that area. Bottom line: would you rather pay $8K (high kit price) for one regional or $10K ($6K +$4k) for 2. It is your choice to make based on your team's situation, and a choice is how it should stay.

Originally Posted by Amanda Morrison

Okay, let's put it this way:

• Development of new technologies for the KOP each year, and people to manage those partnerships.
• Development and maintenance of scholarships available to students.
• Available resources - everything from media guidelines, press releases, logo formats, website updates, agendas, order forms, game manuals, and supporting materials, to name a few.

Every time something breaks, every time teams ask to have something changed, even every time an honest mistake is made, it's probably liable to cost FIRST money. That's just business. Someone has to eat that cost.

With the major electronics changes coming next year to all the different competitions, I am glad FIRST has more stored assets than normal. Hopefully everything works out flawlessly, but we all know this is rarely the case (remember Murphy's Law). FIRST may need to incur considerable costs fixing the problems, so it is nice to know they have the resources.