How to Help the FIRST Sacramento UC Davis Regional
Making the FIRST Sacramento-UC Davis Regional Competition Sustainable
The Sacramento-UC Davis Regional, while young and popular among the FIRST community, is presently lacking the financial support to be a self-sustaining Competition. The major sponsorship for the past two years has come from the University of California, Davis and there is a critical need for this to be matched by corporate and community organizations, who share the commitment to improving the educational opportunities in science and technology in this region.
In an area that is not populated by the headquarters of major automotive, aerospace and computer companies, the sponsorship will to have to come from a larger number of smaller contributors who want to foster the interest in robotics both for professional and community considerations.
As a potential sponsor, you can chose from a range of supporting options and these are described in more detail below.
Sponsoring the Sacramento-UC Davis Kickoff Event
The FIRST Robotics Kick-Off Event is the day on which the new game is announced and the teams get their kit of parts for the coming year. This announcement is made during the first week of January and broadcast by satellite across the NASA Channel and streamed as a webcast from the NASA website. It usually features Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, Professor Woodie Flowers from MIT and leading NASA scientists.
The 2005 Sacramento-UC Davis was held in two lecture rooms of the Roessler Hall on the UC Davis campus with approximately 150 attendees from as far away as Reno and Vacaville.
We hope to expand the options for the 2006 Kick-Off by way of a direct Satellite download and providing donuts, snacks and drinks for the teams. We want to be able to provide travel grants to schools who might be thinking of establishing a team and provide workshops on a range of organizational and technical topics during the remainder of the day.
Sponsoring Opportunities at the Sacramento-UC Davis Competition Event
The major expense of the Regional’s budget is the Competition itself. Since FIRST has a policy of providing free admission to these events, the expenses must be covered by sponsorship. Over the past three years the cost of each competition has been approximately $150,000 and the initial grants from FIRST, NASA and Kliener, Perkins, Caufield & Byers that were aimed at launching the Regional have now been phased out. The University of California, Davis has recognized the importance of this program to area high schools and has taken the lead in sponsorship of the Competition during 2004 and 2005. However, this Regional’s future depends on the establishment of several long-term sponsorship commitments.
FIRST has an established set of guidelines and funding categories:
| Sponsorship Category | Donation |
|---|---|
| Title Sponsor | $ 125,000 |
| Leaders in Technology | $ 25,000 |
| Captains of Innovation | $ 10,000 |
| Friends of the Future | $ 5,000 |
and the naming opportunity for the Sacramento-UC Davis Regional itself remains available.
A list of naming opportunities for the 2005 Sacramento-UC Davis Regional Competition can be downloaded for your consideration (download RegionalSponsor.pdf - Requires Adobe Reader)
Sponsoring Opportunities for the Development of New Teams
The sponsorship of the formation of new teams in Northern California can be approached in a number of ways. Successful new teams have several key components of support. These include an excited group of students, involved teachers, active mentors and parents, and the funds to purchase the parts kit and entrance to one Regional ($6,000) competition and purchase tools and other parts. The funds will generally not come from a school budget, so that it has to be raised from sponsorship and/or team fundraising.
The Sacramento-UC Davis Regional Committee wants to develop a sponsorship program for new schools in the form of grants for the kits, entrance fees and travel expenses, to increase the number of schools who have FIRST teams for students to join. With 100,000 high school students in this region and only 200 or so presently involved in FIRST teams, there are local high schools in your neighborhood that need this support.
FIRST has a number of competitive grant programs especially for new (or rookie) teams. Please contact us if you want to learn more about this program, of existing teams who might help by mentoring a new team or suggestions that you might have to help us make this activity a regular club/sport in all of our high schools.
Volunteering as a Regional Team Mentors
Individuals, corporations and organizations can help by providing mentoring service to new and existing teams. The Regional Committee wants to establish a Mentor program that can be accessed by all teams in the Region, regardless of socio-economic status or parent involvement.
Such a pool of mentors will provide advice and encouragement to students in several ways, ranging from the presentation of introductory seminars and workshops on topics such as electric motors, gears, circuits, drive trains, mechanical arms, sensor systems, C programming, CAD drawing, web-page design, computer animation and project management. In addition, non-technical mentors can help student teams by providing ideas for problem solving, task management, fundraising or event and trip organization.
Mentoring is a log-established part of FIRST activities and a guideline for potential mentors can be downloaded from http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=498.
Volunteering for the Competition Event
The Sacramento-UC Davis Competition, like all other FIRST Competitions, is run entirely by volunteers during the 3 days of the event. Typically 60 volunteers contribute blocks of 3 to 4 hours in a range of roles that keep the event running smoothly. Volunteer duties range from helping with setup of the Game field and Pit areas, greeting VIPs and Volunteers, staffing the information booth, handling team liaison, food service and other duties.
Please contact us if you want to learn more about becoming a Volunteer at the Sacramento-UC Davis Competition.