Non-profits and managing money.

[Rick TYler]

There is one other organization that you can be part of without the expense of forming your own 501(c)(3) -- the Explorers. Part of the Learning for Life organization, Engineering Explorers is an educational organization intended to provide opportunities for learning about career opportunities in STEM. http://www.learningforlife.org/explo...ing/index.html

I don't know anything about 4H, so I can't compare to that, but the Explorer program provides some real benefits to someone starting a robotics team. First, all your adult volunteers will register with Learning for Life and go through a formal criminal background check. I view this as a way to reduce my personal risk of allowing an inappropriate volunteer work with youth. Second, they carry liability insurance that protects leaders during Explorer Post events. Third, they offer Youth Protection training to adult leaders. If you create your own 501(c)(3) you will need to handle these things on your own. I wouldn't consider being a volunteer for a youth organization that had no liability and risk coverage for adult volunteers.

The only real downside to the Explorers program is that it requires you to be aligned with at least one corporation or government agency which "charters" the post. In our case, our corporate liaison is also our post advisor. We pay about $10 per person per year to be a Post.

Our local Exploring office would handle our finances for us (they are a 501(c)(3)), but we are lucky enough to also be an affiliate member of the Seattle Robotics Association, which is a 501(c)(3) that handles the finances for a few robotics teams in the area.

Whichever route you take, good luck and have fun.

[wendymom]

Being a 4-H team is very similar to the Explorers. We are covered for libibility under the county 4-H and all our voluteers are fingerprinted and background checks also through 4-H. We have 501 C 3 status as well, through 4-H. We pay 1.00 per person per year for extra medical insurance for everyone in the club. We dont pay any kind of dues to the county but the team has a set yearly dues. We are also elibible for 4-H scholarships as well as FIRST ones. We have our own checking account so we don't have to wait for monies to clear the county account.

I really love being a 4-H club. We enjoy all the perks and none of the hassle. We can promote 4-H and FIRST together because their goals are so similar. We particpate in both programs........its fun to see the robots in the 4-H building at the fair with all the agriculture things!

[Daniel_LaFleur]

1729 is also a 4-H club, administered under UNH. Like Exploding bacon, our liability, 503 (c) 3 non-profit status and background checks are handled through 4-H.

We're currently eligible for 4-H and FIRST scholarships, and we are plan on looking into UNH specific scholarships.

We don't pay dues to 4-H, but we do attend their presentations and we do volunteer to help with their 'get togethers'. This gives us both a community outreach and allows us to help those helping us. Even before we got our official team number, we were demonstrating FIRST at the local 4-H fair (we actually build a 'stone soup' robot at the fair) and we'll probably expand those activities in this coming year.

All in all, 4-H and FIRST are an excellent fit and 4-Hs new technology push only makes it better.