Regionals vs Off Season - Budget Constraint Edition

[Foster]

I'm freshly back from IRI where I had a blast and I'm putting the final touches on our 2010-2011 budget.

This years plan has us attending two regionals (Philadelphia and one other) and us using our NASA pass to get to St. Louis. We will be attending

• PARC
• Bridgewater
• Monty
• Duel on the Delaware
• Ramp Riot
• IRI (if we get invited back)
• Rochester Ruckus

IRI, Rochester require overnight stays, PARC would be nice, otherwise it's a long day trip. If I include travel costs, I can go to the 7 off seasons for about the same cost as the second regional.

So my question is this, in light of tight budget constraints, is it worth it to do the second regional (and or Championships). If I pull those two line items out of my budget I could go to 1 Regional (Philly*) and 14 off-season events. (*Might as well go to the regional since it comes "free" with the kit of parts and Philly is an hour away)

If I look at the experience level, 15 events means I can get more / different roboteers to each event. I'm doing events almost every month so there is a constant flow of "build/repair for 3 weeks", compete, repeat. Also it helps that when I get new students in I can grow them.

If I look at the "robotics is fun" level, then the off-seasons rock. All of us said flat out that IRI was the most fun at any competition. Most of us agree that the off seasons are far more fun than the regionals. If I'm trying to balance the lots of hard work now and fun later, I get more fun for my efforts.

Bottom line is I'm trying to stretch some very thin robot dollars as far as I can. I look at the FIRST $4000 regional cost vs 7 off seasons for the same $4000 and I'm not getting it.

(And yes for those of you that are going "Well didn't we talk about this before" we did, but back in the days where money grew on Segways. Sponsor money is very very tight this year.)

Help enlighten me O Oracle of (chief) Delphi, why should I do more regionals? How do I maximize my dollars to inspiration ratio?