WHEN YOU HAVE A LARGE FIRST TEAM AND EVERYONE WANTS TO GO TO NATIONALS AND YOU HAVE LIMITED FUNDS HOW DO YOU CHOSE WHO GOES? WE HAVE THIS DILEMMA. IT WOULD BE GREAT TO TAKE EVERYONE BUT THE FUNDS ARE NOT THERE. 
Well, you could always try doing fundraising in the school, doing little things. Candy sales are great for profit.
If not, and thereās no other way to get funding, you can take the core group first. And if any other people who are maybe new and want to go and have earned their way to going, Iād recommend taking them also. It all depends on the people and if they work for it.
On our team, for all competitions we go to, the team pays for part of the trip and requires students to pay a certain amount for the trip. It makes the trip affordable for the students, and limits the amount that the team has to spend on taking students.
We use a star chart with required tasks that our students have to accomplish in order to qualify to go. Right now we have 34 kids and can only take 30 so weāre going to have 4 disappionted kids (we also can only take 15 adults but we donāt use a star chart for them).
Can you make it affordable to have everyone pay?, or can your team raise some money to offset some of the cost in the approximate 5 months? You could at last resort just start limiting people via performance/attendance.
p.s. Please turn off the caps lock when posting.
I would start out with team members you need, as in drivers, one or two people who are very good at repairs of all the robot parts, and any other essentials.
Next I would probably give favor to seniors who havenāt been to the nationals, and if I had extra tickets either raffle them between the remainding people or distribute them by work effort.
During 2004 we couldnāt afford to pay for everyoneās plane ticket/hotel/etcā¦ for nationals. Basically what we did was ask the student to pay the necessary funds to travel and stay at Atlanta. For those who really wanted to go to nationals and couldnāt pay the cost to travel, we used the teamās funds.
- Caps Lockā¦off.
- We usually send the students that participate the most, through their attendance and actions. Extra points for spirited members as well.
I remember from our team every year for every event we had to pay at least half of everything which included room, plane ticket, and usually buy our own food (except for the team dinners). Others have posted good suggestions but another option could be to partition the funds among those that you are sure will be usefull to take and have them pay some portion of it.
116 deals with this in several ways. This year they are going to nationals and VCU. VCU is about a two-two and a half hour drive from home. For VCU, the flight and pit crews (10 students) go down Wensday night and stay through Saturday. The rest of the team, usually a full school bus load, will go down Friday morning at about 6am, then spend the night and leave Saturday evening. That cuts out two nights of hotel rooms for ~25 students and chaparones, as well as the headaches involved in a two day longer trip - missed school, more chaparones, more time to get into mischif. There is also a $25 deposit to goto Richmond. It offsets the money going out a little, as well as an incentive to show up.
For nationals, most of the team will likely go after school on Thursday and return Sunday. There is a $100 deposit, and will likely be another $150 per student, for a total of $250 for the trip. This is about what it has cost the students for the past few years.
Our funding is such that the team can cover a large amount of the travel cost, but not all of it and the student needs to come up with the rest. Adults serving as offical school trip chaparones do not pay anything. Mentors pay the student rate, and other adults going as guests, such as parents/spouses, pay the full cost.
Wetzel
Last year 571 was not planning on going to nationals at all but when the opportunity arose, we realized that we wanted to go but didnāt really have the funding for it. We went to our sponsors and some of them volunteered a little boost in funding because of our success. We also had each student pay about $300 to go.
At first we were not sure if everyone would be able to go because of funding. We added up the money on the last few days, and it turned out everyone who could go went, but before then all of the seniors were going, along with the most active juniors. We should have based the decision on who should go more on activity level instead of what grade members are in, but everyone got to go for us, so it turned out alright. For your team I would recommend you take: Drivers, repair people, any active builders, then perhaps a few scouters, but mainly those who have helped on the team in other aspects, such as animation, programming, or website design.
Anyone who is willing to put up the money on our team. The ācore membersā are obviously the ones that you absolutely need, but everyone deserves the right to go to the competition providing they were dedicated during the build season, so the team pays part of it, and we(the students) pay part of it.
I am on WildStang Team 111 and we have a class that is around 70 members so we cannot take everyone.
The teachers and Mentors from Motorola select a group of people (around 25-30) to go to nationals yearly.
Everyone goes to our hometown Midwest Regional and a small crew of about 10 students went to the Great Lakes Regional in the past year.
I always saw Nationals as a reward for a job well done and I always worked my hardest so I could participate.
As for fundsā¦ We do a bunch of fundraisers, right now we are selling Fannie May Candy. We also sell Entertainment books, have a huge raffle, and partner with local commiunities to get part of their earnings given to us. (for example Roly Poly Sandwiches is donation 15% of their profits from this Thurday Nightās sales) We also get help from our sponser (Motorola Inc.) and School Dist. 214.
well right now we have 41 veterans and about 30 something rookie-- and we canāt travel with all of them to any competition
to determine who travels we have rules-- right now all paper work must be in, grades checked during the spring, you have to raise a certain amount of money to go to a competition , then another amount for 2 competitions and if we go to national then another amount to go to all three competitions and you have to go to 1/2 of the car washes, so right now we had three car washes you had to attend 2 out of three
it is very hard but we have 2 regionals to go to and hopefully nationals-- so we try to make sure that everyone can go to a regional
good luck to all this year in raising money and building 
Actually, last year we based it on a points system. There are so many meetings, and work days, and other activities that go on throughout the fall and build season. The students received a number of points for each activity they attended. Anyone wanting to go to competitions had to pay a deposit for their travel, but at the end of build season, we had 3 ranges of points. Highest points (to a certain break point) had travel pretty much paid for, middle bracket had half (or some amount) paid for, and lower bracket had to pay for themselves.
Also, we will not allow students to travel if they have any school grades below a C-, regardless of what points bracket they are in. So not everyone always gets to go.
We also have some fundraising that can get applied to a students āaccountā, which can help them pay for some travel if needed.
Having it based on their activity level is a pretty good way to make travel decisions. If everyone is equally involved and interested with the program, then decisions can be tough. We do our best to have everyone go to the competitions with us because we think itās exciting and valuable for every student to attend. We donāt like leaving anyone behind. But the manner in which they get there is not always the same.
Thanks for correcting me Amy.
We work hard to be sure everone who is eligible to attend can attend every event.
Students are required to attend 80% of the meetings, maintain a defined gpa, and be passing all classes at the time of the trip (teacher leaders make sure of this.). Students are also expected to get small sponsors. Anyone who is not contributing to the team during the build season is dealt with then, not before travel time.
I think it is important for everyone who was a part of the team to travel with the team. The trips are the real reward for the season and how a team comes together as a group. Rookie team members can learn so much from being at the events that it is worth a lot of extra effort to get them there. You never know which student will get the super inspiration!
Two years ago we qualified for the Championship after attending 2 regionals. The funds were very low to cover even a portion of the team traveling. We ended up asking each student to contribute a little more money (students have to pay a fee to be a part of the team) and everyone was able to go. We stayed at a cheaper hotel, rented vans, and did picnic lunches everyday. It was great to be there and have the whole team with us.
So - some ideas to get the team there -
More fundraising.
Stay at off-site hotels, especially suite hotels with 5 to a room and free breakfast.
Ask students to put in some (more) money.
We have a few ways of doing this. First, we have a system that tracks how many hours everyoneās been at meetings. We use this to get a basis of how much they COULD have contributed, but itās not always that effective. This year, weāre having each student write a list of what theyāve contributed to the team.
Everyone who we feel deserves to go, goes to the competitions. This is usually everybody, as those who donāt care enough about the team usually arenāt on it by the end of build season, by their own accord.
Of course, this costs a bit of money. Some of it is payed by the team, and the rest comes from the students. And, to cut down on costs, we use parentsā vans and trucks to transport toolboxes and such to nearby regionals, and a bus for those that are further away (fond memories of the 16 hour bus ride to nationals).
The bus also doubles as a mobile lock-in before the competition.