HYPER Alumni Funding Challenges

Historically HYPER Alumni Association (HAA) fundraisers have been in-person social events, as it provided both a fun way to support HYPER and a chance for our many alum and supporters to catch up on our busy lives. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, we have made the obvious and safe choice to not hold in-person fundraisers until it is safe to do so. Which has left the Association’s income and ability to provide support for Team HYPER Robotics impaired. Shortly before the pandemic in 2020, we had just hit our long term funding goal, which would allow us to help HYPER attend a National Championship competition if they qualified during the regular competition season. Without fundraising over the past two years, we have had to tap into those funds to continue to provide scholarships to HYPER graduating students and support whatever activities and purchases we could. For as little as $5 a month, you could help us make a big difference by sponsoring the HYPER Robotics Team with a recurring monthly donation.

The Needs

FIRST Robotics and Team HYPER are back in action this season, and it’s not uncommon to hear the phrase “maybe the Alumni could…” during the build season. We would love to provide whatever support is needed–be it new computers for students to learn Solidworks/3D modeling, or reimbursing an Alum who ran out and purchased that bolt we were out of, or a replacement for the tenth tap broken so far–but unless our treasurer finds the “unlimited money” code for our bank account, we would quickly deplete the funds generously raised by our alumni network over the past ten years. Read a more concrete list of both immediate uses and long-term goals.

The Ask

The HYPER Alumni network has grown immensely over the 27 years Team HYPER Robotics has been in existence. We understand life responsibilities and relocations outside of Quincy have made it difficult for many alumni to donate their time or participate in fundraising efforts, so we have created a safe way for former members of Team HYPER to continue or start to give back. With an estimate of over 200 former members of Team HYPER, just $5 a month would fund $12,000+ a year, which would go directly to our mission of providing for and supporting Team HYPER and its students.

At this time, we are asking for a recurring donation to help provide the Alumni Association with a consistent income. Small, regular donations from alumni would allow us to better plan our support and spending for Team HYPER. This recurring donation would be entirely controllable by you, and cancellable at any time on your account page. You can also make a one-time donation through our usual donation page.

• Faster, more consistent internet
  With an ever growing number of devices connecting to our wifi, our outdated wifi equipment and incoming data line have been overwhelmed (or just showing its age) several times a meeting this build season. We’d like to provide a more modern and capable wifi setup as well as faster internet service.
• Replacements for outdated desktops and laptops
  Many of the computers were already several years (or more) old when donated to Team HYPER, which means many of them provide an agonizingly slow user experience today. We’d like to provide newer desktops and laptops for both general use, photo/video editing, as well as 3D modeling and programming, as needed.
• Reimburse Alumni/Mentors for purchased robot parts, materials, and tools
  Alumni/Mentors are always generously pulling out their credit cards to cover the cost of purchasing robot parts, materials, or tools that are outside of the normal vendors the Team has purchase orders with. We’d like to augment the Team’s ability to reimburse these purchases and possibly provide for making these purchases outright with Alumni funds.
• Purchase a spare updated/new FRC control system for competition
  FIRST released the new control system for the next number of years, replacing the control system in use since 2015. Team HYPER has purchased one control system for use on this year’s robot, we’d like to provide a spare set for replacing any broken or malfunctioning equipment at competitions.
• Donate meals for late night meetings
  Robotics has long hours that go late, we’ve all spent entire days working on the robot at some point in our lives. Team HYPER has been given an approved, safe plan to allow the eating of meals (with regards to COVID), and we’d like to donate several meals to the Team this season.
• Replenish stock and commonly used components
  Through the generosity of past and current sponsors, Team HYPER is fortunate to have had a stock of usable materials for robots, but each year they’ve had to buy more and more new material to replace that which was used on prior robots. We’d like to replenish the supplies most commonly used each year, such as:

  • Aluminum tubing
  • Lexan sheets
  • Plywood & dimensional lumber for field
  • Bolts
  • wiring and connectors
  • batteries

• Provide scholarships to graduating students (and future Alumni!)
  A main component of the HYPER Alumni mission is to provide scholarships to help graduating HYPER students with the cost of college.
• Host FRC & HYPER Alumni social events
  We miss every single one of you and would love to once again host events for HYPER Alumni to gather, catch up, and possibly network with other FIRST Alumni when it is safe to do so
• Fund HYPER’s travel to a championship competition
  An original “ask” from Team HYPER when we first created the Alumni Association and looked for ways to help the Team, was to raise and reserve funds to help cover the cost of the registration and travel to a National Competition if the team qualified after our regular competition season.
• Repair or replace equipment & machinery
  We’re fortunate that Team HYPER has its own machine shop in which we can both create parts for the robot and teach students the safe use of the equipment, but some are outdated or in need of repair/maintenance/parts.
• Sponsor HYPER’s fledgling FTC teams
  At the suggestion and in memory of a Team HYPER Alum, the Team created two FIRST Tech Challenge teams, to help transition students from the smaller lego robots to the robots we build at the FRC level. We’d like to help these fledging teams with parts, materials, and tools as they need.
• Donate marketing materials for HYPER recruitment and outreach
  HYPER Alumni, Mentors, and Students have had many ideas for materials or products to help the team market itself within the schools for recruitment/recognition, at events & competitions, or online. We’d like to provide funds for some of these ideas to become reality.

If every HYPER Alum from the past 28 years donated $6.90/month, we could raise $15,000+ per year to help give back to Team HYPER.