Hi everyone. We're going to wait a couple minutes to see if More people show up.
Yeah, Thanks for your patience. You
the same way
yes, I want to Use This energy.
Um, hi everyone. I think we're going to get to get started that way we have plenty of time for questions and such at the end.
So welcome to
the seismic design competition 2024 November finance panel. This is the first time we've ever done this. So bear with us. We're hoping to help you guys, you know, improve your finances and, you know, raise money to go to the competition, because we definitely want to see you all there. Yeah, so let's get started. So first off, this year, we have over 50 teams indicated or indicating interest from universities across the US and around the world for this year seismic design competition, as
you as so
as you or as we've announced, the SDC 2025 this year will take place at the Student Union at the University of California, Berkeley, in Berkeley, California, USA. So you guys can start planning on budgeting and everything.
Yeah, so I guess,
officially endorse any of these tips in any capacity. These tips are mainly based on the various experiences of the SLC, and they're generally very American centric, as attending and preparing for SDC at an American university is the main experience for many SLC members. However, we tried to incorporate tips and such for international teams. Thoroughly do your own research if you plan to implement any of these tips, especially since, you know, for instance, I haven't competed in SDC for a few years, and things are really different now. So you should definitely research any of the tips that you see here.
Okay, I guess Gustavo, do you want to give the budget?
Yeah, sure. So this where some estimated costs, mostly, you know, based on the US, so again, you know the research, but in practice, competition, you're going to have some fixed costs. These are costs that you know, most team would have and based on the US. So every student member is going to have to pay a membership the year I membership. That's mandatory. It's 25 those preparation. So if your team has four members, it's going to be around, you know, $100 materials, you know, widely r i, but you know, if you just go with the very basic you know materials, balsa wood, you know, glue, at least, at a minimum, you're going to spend, you know, around $600 that number is probably going to go higher. If you know, you do something more refined. Or if you build, you know, more models, but if you use here, it's assuming you just built, you know, one single model, and that's the one that you went and test.
And, you know, some teams
use especially equipment to cut, you know, material. Then here, assuming that you already have access to such equipment, you might, you know, spend some money on maintenance of that equipment, I am unsure what the cost would be, you know, in every country for
renting the equipment itself.
But you know, these are some estimates here, just to give you an idea of, you know, how much you can spend at a minimum registration, and this is something every team would have to pay unless, you know, you get granted one the $1,000 registration grant that Eri, you know, is going to be offering for new teams. We're estimating that registration is going to be $200 per version this year. So,
you know, that's
100 there they
so when it comes to hotel,
the average, you know, rate is what we you know, search online. I think it's around $210 for a double room per night. So, you know, those are the costs that are indicated that you know, this number can go higher and lower, but this was the average that we found. And same for meals and then finally, transportation, which is a, you know, maybe you know, you may not be aware, but the main airport, which is the SFO airport, not the only one. And then I think Casey is going to mention some other airports, but this is the main one in the area, and it's not exactly close to Berkeley, so you're going to need, you know, Bart, which is the, you know, public transit system, and that's going to, you know, cost something. So
please be aware of that.
So this is to summarize that, you know, attending the competition is not cheap, and we estimate that a team is going to spend at a minimum $5,000 in fixed costs attending the competition. So even if you get the registration grant, you really need a plan for the rest. And yeah, you can go to the next one. Casey. Now on top of that, there is a number of additional costs. These widely vary, and I tried to Google and find some numbers here. So for example, if your international team, your members may need a visa. So I guess one solution for this is that, if you know, you can find people already have
it's better. But
if not, it's $185
per every per you know a student needs a visa, the
very international team, or even if you ever within the US, but you're not, you know, in Berkeley, you're probably going to have to pay for shipping your model, and that is surprisingly, very expensive. So the estimates that I have here are using FedEx, but you're, you know, you're open to use any other company. And I'm assuming that you, you know, went with the limits of, you know, our structure, five pounds, which is what's supposed to, you know, weigh maximum. And these are some estimates of cost. But you know, you can go higher. So at a minimum, if you are in the US, you're going to spend, you know, around $500 but you know a country, for example, here, like Egypt, might be even $4,000 to ship your your model. So quite expensive. The flights are also, you know, increasingly high, you know, depending on the distance that you are, that's something you have to account for. So notice the main key thing here is that some of these cuts, like shipping, you know, might we use a bit if you find an alternative way. And I think Casey is going to talk a little bit about that. But basically, if, if, instead of shipping, you find a way to, for example, build a tower in place that might, you know, alleviate some costs. But yeah, so basically, this is a general idea of what you can expect to spend in the competition. And I think Casey was going to go through some tips of how to alleviate some of these costs.
Yeah, so I guess tips to reduce team costs. So first off, materials, so one thing you can do, or, you know, one thing you probably should do, is shop around online. There's a ton of balsa wood sellers out there. Also consider, you know, if you go to Hobby Lobby or something, maybe it'd be cheaper because you don't have to pay for shipping. Or, you know, there's also online stores which might be good as well. So definitely compare prices from those online stores and then figure out, you know, which one is the best for you, which one has the best wood at a price that you can afford, etc. And then additionally, Black Friday is coming up, so I guess I'm not sure. Yeah, Black Friday deals, so maybe, you know, stores will have sales on balsa wood and such, etc, and then for shipping, for preparation. So for packaging, there's a ton of different ways you could package your structure. So you can decide between, you know, bubble wrap, phone, peanuts, etc. So again, you should definitely shop around for these packaging materials and also determine which one is, you know, the best way to package your structure while also keeping the price within your
you know, means
for packaging, you should definitely not get any packaging that will be difficult to clean up since, you know, eventually you'll Have to dismantle your crate and get your tower out so you if you have foam peanuts, you know it might be hard to clean up. So yeah, and you should definitely not use Styrofoam people. You
in the past, and it's been really difficult to clean up. And I think in the official rules, there is a certain number of these that can be applied to teams if they don't clean up after themselves. So definitely choose a method that is also cost effective, and, you know, effective for keeping your tower safe, but also is easy to clean up at the competition. So for the shipping crate, you can, I guess, buy one and have one custom made you cannot additionally buy one made of plywood at your university. If your university has research laboratories, they may have leftover plywood they are willing to donate. So there's a lot of options for that. Okay, so moving on to shipment. So if you use a shipping company, you definitely want to shop around for prices
on where you're Located.
You know, there's different ones available, FedEx, UPS, etc, yeah. And you definitely don't want to wait until the last minute to ship your tower, or, you know, to be looking into these things, because a lot of times there's, you know, something small that you miss, and then you're not able to ship it, and then it creates a huge issue. Additionally, something that may help with shipping costs. Is, if you're within driving distance, it may be worth driving with the tower. So therefore you don't have to purchase shipping. Sorry, you don't have to, you know, pay for shipping or deal with a shipping company, etc. Yeah. Another way that you could bring this tower with you is you could take it on a plane with you, I would say, probably only do this as a last resort, and if there are no other choices at all, but you can fly with tower in 2017 my team ended up missing The shipping deadline, so we had to, we ended up flying with the tower, but it was a kind of a big headache, so I'll explain more. So first off, you should definitely check with your airline, because some airlines might not let you to take it, you know, because it's such a big package. So you definitely should call your airline ahead of time to see if they can even do it in the first place. But sometimes this is, you know, cheaper than using a shipping company just because, or actually, I'm not sure why, but sometimes it is, I think, or it's about the same price. But yeah, but something to keep in mind is, first off, security. So when my team did this in 2017 TSA opened the crate and basically poked around inside because it did not fit in the extreme machine, and they had us take out all of the packaging and such. So it was really making sure they're, you know, checking it and everything, and they're just kind of, yeah. So anyways, they're not the most, I guess, gentle with it. So, you know, there's a risk. Additionally, you they didn't provide anything to open the crate, so you have to bring a power drill or another tool for them to open the crate. I think that year, we ended up having someone bring a power drill. So then we used a power drill to, you know, undo parts of the plywood, but yeah. And then, as I mentioned before, they ended up having the remove most of the packaging, to check the crate, yeah. And then, so this process ended up taking out, like or not, our, I would say, one to two hours. First off, we had to wait for a TSA agent that could do this. And then, you know, they had to actually do it. So that took some time afterwards, once we arrived that year, the competition was in Canada, so we also had to go through customs, but the Canadian customs didn't really bat an eye. They just kind of saw the crate, and then, like, kind of shrugged, to be honest. But yeah, so. But I think after we arrived to the competition, it took a few hours for them to for us to retrieve the crate, I'm assuming, because it was probably one of the last things that had to, you know, come off the plane. But yeah, so I guess essentially, do your research if you take it on the plane. But it is an option that you could look into. So I guess another option that you can do that is fairly not super common, but people have done is building the Tower at the competition. So essentially, what you do here is you ship slash, bring the materials with you, and you come a few days early, and then you build it site. So this might be difficult, you know, to or, sorry, it might be difficult to manage last minute problems. For instance, if you forgot something, or you're missing pieces, etc. And additionally, depending on how long the tower has to dry, the glue might not be, you know, as dry as you want, for shaking and testing the rules and everything. So yeah, but this is definitely an option, especially if you if you're an international team and the shipping is extremely expensive, this might be an option.
And sorry Casey. Let me add on to I guess you could bring it with your partially built so something like, I guess, something like the floors, you could have them all ready glued together. And maybe, you know, because you just have to arrive to the competition a couple years
a build on the tower, but it could be partially built in pieces that you, you know, pack in the plane. So that could be an option too, there. Yeah.
Cool. So I guess moving on to the actual competition trip. So the cost of the trip is highly dependent on the number of people going right? You know, if you only bring four people, it's going to be different than if you're bringing like 30 people. So ways to reduce the overall trip costs. So one way is to put the individual costs such as food, local transportation and EERI membership fee onto each individual rather than having the team pay for these costs. So when I participate in SDC, this is how our team did it. Is the team provided lodging and you know, the airfare and the EERI registration fee, anything, but we had to pay for the membership fee. And, you know, Ubering around the city and food, but yeah, so that's an option. And then, you know, individuals would have to save up for these costs themselves. Yeah. So then another tip, I guess, is to purchase your lodging and plane tickets early. Definitely do not try to purchase these items the week before the competition. Um, you know, airplane tickets tend to jack up in price, you know, at a certain point, once you're getting really close to the competition. So definitely buy them in advance. Also, you know, for lodging, you definitely don't want to end up in a situation where you don't have lodging, or you're stuck in really bad lodging or really expensive lodging, so definitely try to do those early if you can. So I guess for additional tips for lodging, so you want to shop around, you know, for hotels and Airbnbs. So if you have a multiple of four that might be most cost efficient to stay in a hotel. Additionally, you know, some hotels have rollaway beds, so you might even be able to fit five or six. If not, then it might be better to find variable housing, such as, you know, an Airbnb that will allow the exact number of people that you need room for, but yeah, and then also something to consider with lodging is to, you know, come or deter or determine the cost of lodging with proximity to the venue. So the hotel may be cheaper if it's super far away from the venue, but then you know, you have to pay extra costs to transport to the venue, whether that's public transit or Ubering to the competition venue. So I think you know, weighing how close is our hotel to the venue with how expensive it is is important.
So transportation, transportation,
something to consider, for sure, is driving. So you know, you can carpool, use gas, efficient cars, etc. Another thing is or another thing to consider is renting a very large band or van, sorry, a large van or bus if you have a lot of people going. So some people have or sorry, some universities have university vans that you can actually rent out for club functions. You know this varies by university. You can also Google van slash, plus rentals in your area. I think I know a team that ended up driving across the US in a giant van to go to the competition because it was cheaper than flying. And then, you know, if you were driving, you could also bring your tower, so that might help offset some of the costs.
But yeah, so for flying, you want to buy your flight.
You also want to choose an airline that works the best for you, you know, in terms of how much luggage you're bringing, which ones are, you know, have direct flights or whatever, etc, and then something that I guess that's kind of nice about the Bay Area is that they have three airports that are relatively close to or they have three airports. So you should definitely compare flights to the San Francisco airport the San Jose airport and Oakland, because depending on, you know, where you're flying from, one may be cheaper than the other. I think generally, SFO is probably going to be cheapest, just because it's, I believe, the biggest airport in that area. But you know, you never know, with different airlines, maybe it's cheaper to go to Oakland or San Jose, but I think it's definitely worth looking into
to transport with your poster, which is going to count as a piece of luggage. Yeah, so transportation around the city, okay, so now you know you've arrived to the city and you're trying to transport to the hotel, or maybe you want to go sighing or whatever, so you should definitely look into cheap, local transportation, busses, trains, etc. I think Gustavo mentioned Bart, which is the train system in the Bay Area. And then you also maybe want to look into transportation passes for the week, rather than paying for, you know, each time you use a transportation system. And then also, you want to carpool as much as possible. Yeah, I guess I don't know. Gustavo, do you have any more tips for transportation around the city, as someone who lives in the Bay Area?
Yes, I was just mentioned. So the BART, which is a Bay Area rabbit transit, obtain what it's called a Clipper card online, and it basically will just, you know, give you access to, you know, put some money into it and use the different transportation systems in the area. So not only access to the trains, but also there are sometimes, like trolleys or busses in San Francisco that I that you can get into with the part. Now, sometimes, you know, Bart can get expensive. So if you're a large number of people, maybe Uber can be, you know, easier, but at least for a team of four, part is better. And I think it mostly works, you know, almost like, if it's not 24 hour, it's like it has a very wide range of operations. But just always, please check, you know the I'm gonna put the name of the Clipper card the chat.
And then someone is asking
on the chat something, I will reply to them
after this, but yes, so that Clipper card for transportation. I'm trying to think of something else,
but I think that's
it. Yeah. So I guess also you can look into renting a car too. I really say we forgot to put that on. But you can also look into renting a car, you know, because you're going to be there for the whole week. So it might be worth it, though. I will say that typically rental car places, if you're under 25 they slap on like a couple $100 fee because you're not over 25 so, yeah, definitely look into it. But if you have someone that's over 25 it might be worth
it. But yeah, like when renting the car comes the I mean, you need to make sure that you have some form of insurance. Maybe your credit card really has it, but
if not, you're going to have to pay for some,
you know, additional insurance while you rent the car.
That's true, yeah, and I guess if you rent a car, you also have to pay for parking and stuff, so that might be a factor in to whether you decide to rent a car or not. But, yeah, okay, so next for the registration. So right now we're expected that the registration is going to be $200 per person. Um, person. This may change. If it changes, it will be going down, but I think we should expect about $200 per person at this point.
