FUndraising Idea's?

So i was wondering what everyone did for fundraising other than simply ask for company sponsorship(Because I've tapped that well dry in the local area).

As it stands I have enough for registration and to get the team down to miami with a place to stay. My problem is we have alot of expenses to cover beyond this, We need to buy several more chargers and spare battery packs Because we have very few, And i still need armor for the 120 pound robot.

The way we usssually do it is to organize concerts for the school bands Charging for admission and snacks, we make around 1600 a show. and the latest one is what is paying registration fees for miami, And you cant have concerts so often, because people just dont wanna go anymore.

I was thinking of maybe selling stick time to people off the team, but i don't really trust anyone enough to do it, has anyone done anything similar?

I don't know what "stick time" is but a very INEFFECTIVE way to get money but helps big time with publicity is letting people drive the robot and destroy stuff that they bring. (computer monitors and stuff like that) Maybe that's what you meant by stick time, but this doesn't raise that much money. $10-$20 a turn won't raise that much but it's sure an attention grabber.

My school was VERY willing to do this. In fact they suggested it, but I refused because we didn't have a proper cage to do it in.
You know what's really scary? When I'M the voice of reason. That's never a good sign.

thats exactly what i meant, hmm the tennis courts at school have very tall wire fences, would this act as a sufficient cage to destroy stuff in?

The correct question: "Would it block a piece of shrapnel that could embed itself into an arena wall?"

We're considering doing a 'destroy your old tests/notes' thing as publicity around the end of finals week, since shredded paper tends to decelerate quickly after it's hit.

Jeeves, I don't know what robot you're wanting to use but any kind of active weapon can easily send tiny fragments at the bystanders. And I doubt you will have enough safety glasses for everyone.
If you look at the testing videos for Tornado Mini and Blender Mini, we were hiding behind 1/2" ply wood and we still didn't feel safe then. And just look at the pieces TM sent flying. Awesome yes, but deadly.

And Jeff, that's not a bad idea. I might use that one.

My school was actually talking to me about building demonstration robots specifically to show off and use around campus. For example, if we had a robotic t-shirt launcher (like the one at RHS), we could take it to basketball games to entertain the crowd and we could charge the school for our services.
It's kinda late for this year but something to think about.

becareful what materials you choose as the can also hurt your bot.
We've had things rap up into our drums several times

jeeves_m_d wrote:

the tennis courts at school have very tall wire fences, would this act as a sufficient cage to destroy stuff in?

NO

jeeves_m_d wrote:

thats exactly what i meant, hmm the tennis courts at school have very tall wire fences, would this act as a sufficient cage to destroy stuff in?

maybe if your hitting cardboard box

Now that I think of it, even running some robots outside is a bad idea. For example, X-Termination (10" OD drum 15-lber) just barely grazed the ground and two of its teeth popped off, one denting an iPod and one meeting dughi's face. The tale (from the Injuries thread):

That Guy wrote:

Fine okay then.

So we were all out in the back of the Miami Beach Convention Center in a garage, with all of our (10?) robots, the head of school, her husband, and all them high ups in the school. Since BotsIQ basically had nothing left for us 15 lbers to do, we decided, "Hey, let's have an all Ransom rumble!!! That'll be fun!!!" So there we are. we're all standing on the side, about 20 feet from the robots maybe (Check that distance for me Will). And we turn em all on. About 10 seconds in, I see this grey, what appears to be a wheel shaped object, flying from Will's X-termination straight towards me. Suddenly it hits me in the cheek, deflects off me (barely misses the head of school's husband who was standing right next to me) and flicks Mr. Dubard's ear. I felt like I was punched. Mr. Dubard starts screaming to turn off the bots, I'm saying, "no its nothing, I got hit by a wheel, keep going!" And Panic ensued. And everybody starts staring, Will's mom rushes over, and says, "let's get you over to the table, c'mon." I put my hand on my cheek and it's bleeding. Apparently, I got hit by one of Will's tool steel tips that came flying off his drum spinning at a fast enough speed to look like a wheel. I ended up in the emergency room (I wasn't bleeding that bad though), they must've taken like an hour to stitch it up and everybody's telling me, you need to do whatever so that it won't leave much of a scar. I'm complaining, "But I want a scar!" So I ended up with my battle-scar from fighting X-Termination with my face. Its almost perfectly shaped like this: |_| on the side of my face. It's awesome. And then I was back to the competition the next day and we all got a big talk from Nola.

Not sure the class of bot you're in, but definitely be really careful. Last year, "But I'm Not a Robot" was in the testing center that we thought was safe. Had relatively thick lexan and seemed very sturdy, we had been using it for three years without a problem. Then, But I'm Not's tooth snapped off its drum at full rotation. It broke right through the testing center, and made a dent in the chalkboard 30 feet away. I'm not sure.. But I don't believe plywood is going to do anything at all against a robot, given that's what we use to munch on when testing weapons XD Currently, I believe the new center has 2 inch thick lexan on one side, and bullet proof glass on the other. The other two sized have steel sheets through them covered by plywood, and no one is allowed back there when the bots are on.