Yes, it does, but not when he affiliates himself with a specific team on CD. Whenever anyone usually looks at someone’s name on here, they look to see which team they are apart of…at least I do.
Also, changing your profile to not show your team underneath your name doesn’t take away the fact that you are a part of that team.
If you would like to yell at Chris, Blake, fine. Please don’t use bolded and enlarged lettering when addressing me in a serious discussion.
Jane
Are team was successful in the regionals we attended. Until our school told us they would no longer fund us. We all wanted to continue in FRC. We fun-rose all summer, attempted to no avail to gain sponsors. The cost was just to great. So we decided to try FTC instead. which i must say is not nearly as much fun or creative.
Ok, are there any other teams near you? Because I would bet my bottom dollar that if you and a few head mentors from your team went and asked them if you guys could combine teams, they would allow you to do so with open arms.
If this indeed is the case, then there are other problems here.
First, the amount of money your team has should not impact the number of mentors you have. Mentors should (at least in my opinion and in my experience) be willing volunteers who show up because they want to show up. There shouldn’t be a monetary incentive.
Second, your team should work with other teams in your area to learn how to find more sponsors. Sponsors do not approach teams; teams need to approach sponsors. There are great resources around CD to start you on finding sponsors.
Two quick comments about regional costs-
In answer to your question, attending a 2nd regional (regardless of location) is $4k (to FIRST), plus the cost of transportation to the event and lodging (will vary by location).
Your comment regarding how much FIRST spends on regionals was very off base. Though the locations are often on school campuses (or on a sponsor’s property), FIRST does not get these locations for free. They may get a discount, but it is still pricey. Factor in the resources that go into shipping the field, shipping awards (you would be surprised!), live streaming, promotion, and even the cost of keeping everything powered for three days, and FIRST gets quite a hefty bill at every regional.
Join a team with more then 50 other people? Ya im shure ill learn a lot. But really I have no desire to join a large team nor dose anyone else that was on the team.
There’s a spotlight from Koko Ed that says, in part,
Remember: In FIRST you have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be held against you and your associates in the court of public opinion.
(emphasis mine)
Is there individuality? Yes. But if one member of a group is acting really badly–or really nice–that behavior reflects on the entire group if that member is showing that he or she is part of that group. Disclaimer or no, it will reflect at least to some extent. There have been times on CD that I have seen someone have to try to mend damage caused by someone else on their team, because they know that if somebody doesn’t present the other side, the team will gain a reputation that they don’t want to have.
Reputations, particularly team reputations, are tough to build and very easy to destroy.
I don’t agree with the OP at all, but the idea that FIRST is helping teams out by lowering the entry fee is ridiculous.
They have artificially inflated entry fees while simultaneously drastically cutting the value of the KOP and certain aspects of the event itself (absolutely pathetic trophies, for example).
We used to get a ton of useful stuff every year worth a lot of money that we no longer get, mostly including control system/electronics stuff.
So FIRST may be “helping” us in the sense we’re paying $5k for the KOP and first entry instead of $6k, but the fact remains that we used to pay $4k and get a lot more for our money than we do now. I realize that the economy has been very weak lately and it is difficult to even continue to provide the same level of resources in the kit without increasing cost, but even prior to the recession we saw increased entry fees.
This becomes even more unpalatable when you look at FiM where one set of teams gets to pay essentially half as much as the rest of FRC for the same product. I understand that this is due to a subsidy not funded by FIRST, but that doesn’t make everyone else not lucky enough to live in Michigan feel better about the fact that we’re paying more for less.
While you are right about how it is very expensive to run an event, regional events are responsible for covering the costs of their event independently of FIRST.
Beggers can’t be choosers. If you cannot come to some agreement to join with another team, ask if you can use any help or space available to sustain your team for another year till you guys can get back on your feet.
I think you misunderstood what i meant. We no longer have an FRC team because of money. And FTC doesn’t have mentors.
We had no desire to “borrow” money from another team. knowing we couldn’t pay them back at all, or for a large amount of time.
Never said “borrow” money. I said that you could become sister-teams and co-exist with each other while being different teams. Think 254/968 but working under the same roof.
I apologize if I misunderstood that part. Though I am sure you could find engineers willing to mentor an FTC team as well.
Also keep in mind that local teams are good for quite a number of things. Though merging with another team may not be optimal, chances are there are teams near you with quite a bit of experience gaining sponsors. Judging by the fact that your are from Michigan, I would guess that there are probably at least 10 teams within driving distance that would be willing to lend you a hand.
Ok so trying to start a team back up 7 or 8 days before kick off is not what i started this thread for, nor do i desire to attempt this.
When someone on a team does something wrong they don’t say “Uh oh! Jimmy was rude to that judge. They say” Check out that kid on (insert team name here) acting nasty to that judge. People identify you by your affiliation first and foremost. One thing we always tell our kids if you are planning on doing something stupid while wearing our team shirt do us a favor and remove it and withdraw from the team because not only are you disrespecting our team and our long and illustrious history and the hard work of the members who worked so hard and so long to build this team’s reputation but you are also disrespecting Wilson Magnet High School, Xerox Corporation, Rochester, New York and own family and friends.
So if you are going to pop off about something as volatile as this make sure you have your facts straight so you are not just sullying more than just your own reputation.
I seem to recall, several years ago, at the Wisconsin Regional, there was a team from Muskegon, here, and they barely had enough mouney to pay for their entry fee, much less for transportation and hotel. Their team was small, say abour 6 or 8 students. I spoke to their adult coach, and he told me that they couldn’t generate enough local, financial support, for the team. I’m not certain, if this was your team, or not, or even if they survived to compete again. It’s very unfortunate, when you can’t even get minimum financial support ( or even volunteer mentor support ) for your team. I know the old adage, " If you can move, you can compete ", but as we all know, if all you can do, " is move " you’ll be competing to stay out of last place.
Which is perfectly reasonable.
However the people here are providing these suggestions because we very strongly believe in this program and do not want to see teams disbanding. We do all we can to help keep teams together. Though you may need this year to get back on your feet, having your team back together for next year is a perfectly reasonable goal.
As Keehun and a few others have stated, we may actually have something to gain by examining FIRST’s financial records. Financial information is very relevant to teams, especially with the economy going the way it has been. However, I (and it seems a number of others here) believe that the root of the problem is not what FIRST is doing with the money, but your team’s sustainability.
Jacob, posts like these, e-mails, etc. often come across sounding more harsh than was actually intended. I’ll give you the benefit of doubt that you didn’t really mean to sound the way we took it.
I’m guessing you were looking for some ideas on how to proceed but the negative tone of your post got in the way.
One thought I had - I have no idea if this is possible or not - is to follow the FRC season in unofficially. Build a robot that is designed for the game but don’t register and don’t attend any regionals. Maybe you can find off-season events to compete in.
I really just want to know where the money actually goes. I want to know what the kit cost, where first spends its money, and who gives money to first. Such a lego.
Chris, that’s a little outlandish.
Given, he did not put a disclaimer that none of his views are associated with his team, but I think we can let that one go.
A lot of the things I put on here are my personal views and not necessarily of my team. I don’t confer with my team mentors about everything I put on here. (Probably close to none, if not a post-fact discussion)