We just signed up our two teams again this year at the much increased price. Today, I received the welcome package and there was only one engineering notebook. I am wondering if this was a mistake or if, along with the huge price increase, REC has decided to give us even less than we have received in the past.
What have other teams received when registering two or more teams this year?
Same here.
But the RECF is making some changes. Jason Morella is strangely absent from the page of staff at the RECF, and tournament fees are up too. Hopefully they can get it sorted out in the next few months or so before April.
Did the percentage the RECF take from competition fees go up this year, hence the more expensive competitions? I would be curious as to how the RECF is spending this money
To my knowledge, the percentage RECF takes is the same. It is basically just a minimal fee to process money. More expensive competitions is probably just a matter of inflation, and supply and demand.
I want to say that it went from a percentage to a flat rate. And for us, yes, a shortage of events is causing the price spike in our region
We’re not increasing our price because it seems kind of bad to try to shake down teams for more. $50 still. If we want more money, we increase the size. I’d never make a good capitalist.
I used to be able to let my teams into my tournament for free… Now it’s $5. Not a big deal, but they are getting their money now no matter how you pay!
My teams have only ever received one bound notebook total for our eight registrations. I assumed that was part of the $50 difference for the first team.
RECF President and Vice President MIA. The following used to be on the staff profiles page.
Seemingly replaced by Dan Mantz who appeared in the RECF Executive ranks this year above Jason and Miller. Looks like some quiet changes going on in the post-Karthik era.
It appears that Dan Mantz has been placed above Jason Morella, and Miller Roberts has left RECF (according to his LinkedIn profile).
The fees REC charges EPs went way up. They used to charge 3% of the money they collected. They now charge $5.00 per team at your event even if you waived the fee for the team or they paid you directly or even if it is your own teams.
If you had an event with 40 teams and you waive 10 of them for bringing fields and volunteers, or they are your own teams (not unrealistic) and you were charging $65 and 5 of the teams paid you directly, REC would collect $48.75 last year. Under the new structure, they would collect $200.00.
Under the old structure, you would be giving REC 2.5% of your gross. Under their new structure, you would be giving them 10.2564% of your gross. This is why fees have gone up.
We used to give a discount if teams would both sign up early and pay us directly. This whole idea of charging more and giving less is not cool. It is tough on everyone, and especially programs like ours where we are not part of a school, but an inner city youth outreach. The kids on our team do not pay anything to participate. If they had to pay, they simply would not be able to do it.
This is creating more bariers rather than less.
Huh… Surprised I didn’t hear about that. Well at least we know Worlds will be cheaper, then! /s
Wait, so you only got 1 engineering notebook even though you signed up two teams? Did you get any game elements? Are you sure you didn’t receive the welcome package for only one of the teams?
I believe Jason and Miller are both out now and Dan, as seen on the website, is CEO. Maybe some of this mess with rates and such are why? I can see why they would need a fixed rate per team if teams were bypassing the fee, and also why some overall rates may need to go up. The issue I think for everyone was that it was a big surprise to their budgets and all at once. Maybe over a few years would have been better, but then maybe it was so mis-managed they couldn’t afford to wait? Hence the management changes. In many cases, the management that starts an organization is not the one to take it’s growth into the future past a certain point, not unusual at all really. Growing pains…
I would say if there are concerns then email Dan Mantz, I bet he would listen and take all things under consideration in steering the ship.
We did get two cones and two sets of plates along with the one notebook.
Increasing size is great if you have the room. We do not.
LOL. We shall see. That shoe has not yet dropped. Let’s see if they keep it under $1000
I just want to say that in light of the increased fees, of which I was not aware, I definitely cannot blame anyone who increases their fees by $5/team.
What is interesting is that by charging the $5 for every team that is registered for the event (including teams from the host organization and teams whose fees were waived for any reason) and teams that pay the EP directly, depending on the size of the tournament and the number of teams that fall into the categories mentioned, the cost to the EP per team paying could well exceed $5.00.
We typically do not compete in our own tournaments. That is rare, though, in our region. We do, however, waive some fees for teams that bring fields or help in other substantial ways. We have also waived fees for teams that are like ours in that they are from very low income areas and would not otherwise be able to compete. That is something we typically have not publicized but this new policy makes that much harder to do.
I started another thread, though, to talk about the fees as this one was getting a bit off course.
From the press release
Or not!
Failing to announce major leadership changes is bad. Looks like Karthik, Jason and Miller have all opted to depart. Disagreement with people above seems likely.
Might be good to start with improving the communications systems. Specifically announcing leadership changes to your customers.