How do other Rookie teams do it?

[thefro526]

Not that we're a rookie team but...

Every year that we've gone to the Championship we've had the students pay their own way. The cost of this fluctuates year to year depending on Airfare, but I know this year I think each kid is paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $700, which includes Airfare, Hotel Room, and Team Dinner one night. Some "Adults" like myself, (I'm only an Adult by age.), are paying a bit more than that because we have different travel arrangement etc.

Some years, we'll have a fundraiser in the few weeks before the Championship where any money a Student makes goes towards their Atlanta payments, I know in 2008 or 2009 a friend of mine managed to sell enough cheesecakes to pay for his entire trip...

I know this solution may not work for all teams in all areas due to the cost, but it's the way we've always done it. Instead of fund raising up to $20k to pay for the entire team to go, you may only have to raise $6k-$7k to pay for entry fees and shipping.

[Jason Law]

Last year we made it to nationals at the last week of competitions (before championships). We managed to get money from different sources, and team 33 was very generous in offering us about 8 seats On their bus down to Atlanta (we only had 5 students and one mentor).

My suggestion for you: the major concern is probably the time in which you must pay... Perhaps ask the school to pay upfront the money and give them a fundraising calendar detailing about how much money you will make per fundraising event and when you plan to pay off the debt. That covers the event fee. Perhaps rooming and food is left to students then, or any extra money the team has can be used toward that as well...

[JohnSchneider]

We're good friends with the team across the bridge, 1296. They had originally intended to let 4 of our students and 2 mentors go with them to Atlanta, in order to learn and be apart of it (Very generous on their part). Now that we've made it, we had those 4 paid for weeks ago so no matter what we're going with 4. Probably more, as we do come from a wealthier school, and parents are a bit more willing to pay. But yes, it is very daunting to raise that much so quickly.