Sustainability In FRC Teams

[Bertman]

A couple of thoughts. When students graduate from high school they move onto a new segment of their lives. College, career, marriage, family, military service, whatever; which usually leaves little time for things like FIRST. I think it is more realistic to expect to see them reappear 5 or 6 years after college. Which is a good thing in that FIRST has grown to the point that we take it for granted that it will be around in 5 years.

Another under the fund raising flag is the proportional relationship between team growth, number of teams in an area, and the size of the pie that the teams are trying to slice up. Or in other words in a small or medium sized city there is a finite number of business and resources for teams to approach for sponsorship. As the number of teams in a given area increases the slice of the pie for each team can get smaller and some teams will be squeezed out if they do not put the same effort into fund raising as other teams. Like it or not, I believe this to be a truth, and there are lessons to be learned here also.
my $.02

[catsylve]

Jane,

I can't thank you enough for starting this particular post. This issue is so critical to the survivability of FIRST in general. We have been forced over the last year to really look at our team and deterrnine what we need to do to survive from almost all of the aspects I have seen all of you write about.

All of the comments that I have seen point to difficulties that evolve as a team evolves. Sometimes it is funding disappearing, but when the team solves those problems, it may the illness or burnout of a key mentor. While it would be nice if FIRST could present us with solutions to those problems, FIRST is evolving as we do. I don't think that they have the facilities and experience that the teams have at this point.

Some of the programs that our team is working hard on developing include a mentor training program to help the burnout and mentor loss issues, diversification of funding for team financial stability, team administration structure to support the coaches and mentors and school support to keep to keep the team in touch with the community and promote FIRST. I am sure we are just scratching the surface.

Thanks again Jane. It really is nice to know that all the teams deal with many of the same issues. Hopefully we will help each other to some real solutions.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by catsylve

While it would be nice if FIRST could present us with solutions to those problems, FIRST is evolving as we do. I don't think that they have the facilities and experience that the teams have at this point.

Hm, this is a good point. I've read different posts over the years that skirt or touch on this thought but I've never seen it phrased so well, particularly, "I don't think that they have the facilities and experience that the teams have at this point." Perhaps they don't have the stability or ability to maintain the momentum for moving forward with this ever expanding growing program in a manner that helps sustain the ever expanding growth of the teams. Having new folks in key positions may provide opportunities to address the concerns and robust healthiness of the program, overall.

It's good to see you posting.
Jane