Advice for a team that has lost its school

[Alpha Beta]

Originally Posted by TheOtherGuy

From hearsay, it appears that the school doesn't want to deal with financing a team whose budget is in the mid 5-digits, as the school is relatively small and most clubs require little resources. So, I do believe that with a little push, we could get our club reinstated with the school.

Our school has never provided us with 5 figure financial support. They do provide a minor stipend for 2 adults (less than a single season JV coach each) to help stabilize the teacher liaison and establish a chain of command for the school administration to work with. They have also been generous with bus transportation expenses and serve as a clearing house for some of the financial donations we receive. Most of the finances for the team come from corporate donations, grants, and student fundraising initiatives.

I'd stick with the school if you can bring in outside donations to finance the team. They are already a rallying point for the community and a recruiting platform for new members.

(Last year the school district did outlay a large amount of capital to provide a stable build facility the team could use year round. This only came after the team demonstrated stability, passion, and success for the program.)

Originally Posted by TheOtherGuy

My old FRC team is in their 8th year and now on their 5th teacher sponsor. Although they're still successful, I've noticed the well known teams have a consistent mentor/teacher base that enables them to be stable for much longer periods.

We had 4 different head coaches in our first 4 years. All of them are still supportive of the program, but for one reason or another needed to change their role or association with the team. The key for us was finding ways to spread out the responsibilities so that no 1 person got burned out and give people who are passionate in an area the autonomy to make that part of the program great. We've had the same head coach for 3 years in a row now and it does make a positive difference.

[z_beeblebrox]

Our school didn't give us tens of thousands of dollars. It only acted as a bank for them.

[OZ_341]

Ed B. makes a very good point about separating the concepts of school support and money. They are related but very different.
There are so many things you can obtain by gaining the support of your school that go beyond finances.
Requests for local bus transportation, time off from classes or a work space will be valid requests if you remain a part of your school culture. You may not get everything you ask for this season, but you will gain a little bit of ground each year. That is what we have done at our school.
Our strong support is the result of 14 years of very organized "nagging".

[Ekcrbe]

Originally Posted by TheOtherGuy

That said, I've also had time to think about the formation of a 501(c)3 organization. Now, I'm very split on the issue, so I'd like to open the discussion up a little more: would it be more beneficial for a team to continue their affiliation with a school, or create a city-wide non-profit organization open to students from any school (provided both are available options)?
...
The way I see it, we can either fight for our right to be a team, or we can turn this little push by the administration around and become a much stronger, community-based team. Opinions?

Stay in your school. Looking at my own team as an example, recruiting is many times easier from in a school. We are based exclusively out of Brandon High School, but we also accept students from Holly High School. We still go do demos and push the administration as much as we can at Holly, but we only have about five Holly students out of thirty on the team, most likely because of a lack of presence. Brandon, while not quite a supportive student body, has much more chance to get exposed through our display cases and word of mouth from students and our two affiliated teachers, plus our official school demos.

[Jimmy Nichols]

Originally Posted by z_beeblebrox

Jimmy Nichols is on another team, but I assume that it means they can skip school to go to competitions.

Correct our students receive excused abscenses for attending competitions.

[z_beeblebrox]

Sorry for the thread revival, but an update on the fate of Team 4183:

Up until a little more than two weeks ago, we planned on being a community team. Our money would go through a nonprofit organization run by one of our mentors and we would build at this mentor's house. We have been fairly successful so far this season, as we have raised enough money to attend two regional events and recruited about 17 members, mostly from BASIS, but also from other Tucson schools. We are in the process of forming a dedicated robotics nonprofit that should be ready for next season.

However, we recently received a generous offer from Palo Verde High Magnet School, an engineering magnet school. This year, they are starting a new FRC team and they invited us to build and collaborate with them. The two teams will share two classrooms, a storage space, and probably the school's machine shop. This arrangement will also allow us to use tax credit donations to buy parts. I expect this arrangement will be very beneficial to both teams involved, as we will be able to work with Palo Verde to help both of us build more successful robots.

So basically, the story of 4183 so far ends with a .

[daniel_dsouza]

I look forward to seeing you at the AZ Regional!