I was just wondering how many teams got support mostly from there school or mostly from there sponsor. By support I mean money, facilities, supplies and things like that. My team got just about all of our support from NASA. We barely got any of our support from school, its like we weren’t even part of the school, no one really knew the team existed. All of our meetings were a the city schools Technology Center and NASA building where our playing field was. So where does everyone get there support?
My old team got facility support from our school, what little bit we got. But everything else came from sposorers, mentors, parents, and students. We were really lacking in almost everything.
<— bows down and kisses NASA’s feet for giving us most of our budget.
~Tom~
We have a main sponsor in Pratt as well as about 20 other sponsors. Far as I know, our schools give us nada. Oh well.
We get our most of our $$cash money$$ from Rolls-Royce. Peregrine gives us some. We get all our computer equipment from NEC. The rest of our money comes from various grants and small sponsors. We don’t get a lot of money but we have enough to work with. The school doesn’t give us crap. Just the classroom.
Our biggest support comes from HECo (Hawaiian Electric Company), not only have they provided us with generous monetary support but also a team of very helpful engineers/mentors. As far as I know, a classroom, and an occassional acknowlegment in the school newspaper is all we are getting from the school.
From the high school we got space, machine tools, teachers, and money for students food at regionals. RIT gave us administrative support, some facilities, the use of its name (more important than you think), and a largish some of money. Fibertech Networks also gave us a largish some of money. Most of our money however came from Alstom Signaling. So we’re all over the place with regards to money. 
Matt
My team gets nothing from our school exept what we ’ borrow’
I guess you could say the teacher that runs this is ‘in’ with the maintinance staff at the school because we occationally find a large piece of lexan just when we need it laying in the middle of the room.
The space and tools are only ours because we fought for them. If my school had it’s way we wouldn’t have anything but 3 computers and a 5 by 5 foot space for building the robot, or the tech sequence that takes place in that classroom.
All in all though it ended up being a good place for FIRST, no complaints about our workspace- but the school didn’t reconize our existance untill we were front page news on the local paper (i got 3 letters in the next few days from school officials).
I don’t think many schools out there do very much in the way of support, we almost couldn’t go to NYC because of ‘paperwork problems’ (you all know the ones).
As far as money goes, the school has never given us much cash, but the other things they do are invaluable.
The school has payed for our t-shirts, but not much else.
In the past we have gotten space to build the robot, either the school donated, or someone who goes to the school has found us space.
They have advanced us money while we have waited … and waited for our money from JPL.
Many of the parents on our team are also administrators or teachers in the school.
Without the school, we would not be here, but as far as $$$ go, they haven’t given us much.
Our school I believe pays the $9,000 entry fee. NUWC can’t give us any money (federal agency), but they gave us a facility, computers, and some of the best engineers in the country.
from our school we got our barebones operating budget, travel expences were covered by students. umass generously let us use their physics lab, but neglected to tell the security people that we had permission, so we had periodical run ins with them. and our sponcors gave us t-shirts.
our school pretty much just gave us a room to work in the rest of our money we got from sponsers
Our school gives us $1000 plus a $250 stipend for our advisor (a math teacher. For those of you with nothing from your school, that seems like a lot, but our hockey program gets $11000, and we’ve been around much longer. We also get the use of our advisor’s classroom, but only after and before school, and that’s really up to her, not the school.
TI used to give us our entry fees (one regional and Nationals), plus t-shirts and buttons, along with two electrical engineers for construction. They also provided a (minimal) lab for animation, and several engineers for that.
RS Machine provided us with a machine shop, and the owner really helped us out more than anyone.
HOWEVER, we have lost TI and RS, and are down to our own fundraising, and small sponsors. Hopefully, ONLY until we find a new major sponsor.
Good luck finding a sponsor or few.
I am a sponsor, and we provide most of the funding for the team from a Golf Tournament sponsored by two sponsor companies. Most of hte remaining funds come from J&J. Only limited funds come from the school - mostly to cover transportation costs between our three partnered schools (school buses). Without the golf tournament, and the nearly $35K it raises, we would be sunk!
*Originally posted by Kim *
**I am a sponsor, and we provide most of the funding for the team from a Golf Tournament sponsored by two sponsor companies. Most of hte remaining funds come from J&J. Only limited funds come from the school - mostly to cover transportation costs between our three partnered schools (school buses). Without the golf tournament, and the nearly $35K it raises, we would be sunk! **
i’m interrested in how you guys do this golf tournamemt. could you email me at: cbteam234@home.com for some info. Thanks
Last year we were supported about 45% from the school district and about 45% from the University, and about 10% from local sponsors. Next year we are hoping to add one or more corporate sponsors to the equation.
Patrick
35k?!? you guys can actually spend that much money?
Our school’s site council usually gives us a large portion of my team’s budget, but the amount we’ve been receiving has slowly been dwindling over the past few years. Still, the vast majority of all our income is from corporate sponsors.
We are supported(by means of money) from Sponsors, but we use the schools Work Shop and the principle and most of the teachers like the robotics team.