Sustainability In FRC Teams

[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.