Nasa Grant

[MMIISSYY]

Thanks so much for the support and replies the note of who to call Ken our RD was perfect I didnt know where to begin. My sons teacher lead has been amazing but does not have enough parental involvement. I think the problems where we kept asking what can we do but felt we were being pushy and it was really just the fact that he was overwhelmed I think. He has been a wonderful mentor for my son and I dont want him to lose this especially his Senior year.

Thanks for the idea to call the Chamber of Commerce me and the other mom were thinking about doing this and now we have our game plan for the day!


Thanks again guys
Melissa

[Andrew Schreiber]

http://www.firstnemo.org/resources.htm Also has several resources (scroll down to sponsorship).

And, has your son applied for the various scholarships? (http://usfirst.org/aboutus/scholarships.aspx)

Also, if you have to travel and can't get a group discount rate find another team to work with, between the two of you you should be able to get a discount.

Best of luck!

[Bethie42]

Our team is also applying for a NASA grant: the sustaining grant, as opposed to a second-year or rookie grant. My latest understanding was that the $6000 of existing funding ONLY was required from second-year [year after rookie year] teams.

Here is the wording of the grant, which we are currently working on:
This is the only question in the body of the form that I can find, which mentions 6k.

Second-Year teams only. Rookie and Veteran teams skip to question 11.
If you are applying for a second year of funding you must also demonstrate at least $6,000 in existing school, community or corporate sponsorship.

If this is not the case....we are goin' down. We have only secured $3000 of funding to date, there are more grants in the works but there is no way the organizations will reply by the Oct. 30th deadline.

Also, if our team had $6k already, we probably wouldn't be apply for a NASA grant. Our team spends around $1000 on parts and so on each year [or so I'm told by our mentors] and parents mostly foot the bill for transportation, lodging and so on. We're trying to play this up a lot, focusing on how frugal we are, because of course this is an insanely low budget for an FRC team.
We're located at a small private school and are SO fortunate to even have a team....but the school really can't afford to sponsor us for very much.

I sure sympathize with the OP, this is my fourth year on the team and I really want to be able to participate in FIRST my senior year. Here's hoping that clause doesn't apply to us! Does any NASA representative or experienced mentor-type know the truth of this?

Thank you,
Bethany

[Bethie42]

Well, the NASA grant application just closed....here's hoping y'all got yours in!
And [re: the OP] I am almost positive that if your team is 'veteran' [i.e. older than two years] the $6000 of prior funding is not required.

All the best! Good luck in the 2011 season!