Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

Good morning/afternoon/evening/night/morrow/teatime/et cetera everyone! I was going through We The People this morning and had the thought, "Hey, we could get everyone to look at FIRST if we had the President at St. Louis." Thus, this petition was born: Send President Obama to the 2013 FIRST World Championship

I think having the President attend the world competition would not only be really, SEVERELY cool for everyone at St. Louis, but also it'd bring attention to all the things we're doing at FIRST, and how great all of it is for students, communities, and businesses alike. So, can we manage 100,000 in a month?

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

I did it! Everyone else should too!

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

This is a really cool idea, I hope it works out!

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

A good idea... a good initiative... but it might not be as simple as "Hey, Barack, why not swing by and say 'Hi'?"

My wife had the opportunity, some years ago, to attend a conference where then President George W. Bush would deliver the keynote.

Everyone had to clear security to get into the room where the presentation was being made. Then they had to wait for the presidential entourage to arrive, then they had to wait for the president to leave.

It is unfortunate that such security is necssary, but as great as it would be to have the president visit, it might throw a few bugs into the event schedule.

But the invitation, at least, would likely be noted and appreciated. It never hurts to ask... just sometimes you have to be careful what you ask for!

Jason

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

I wouldn't exactly expect it to be quite that simple, nor do I think it's likely for it to happen this year if at all, but for it to work out that way and go smoothly would obviously be the ideal, so that's what I put into the petition. What I'm hoping for at the least is something to that effect, basically just something that results in everyone hearing the President say something like "Here's this huge, revolutionary thing that our kids are doing that will improve the country and you probably have never even heard of, but here it is so get involved."

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

Just FYI, our president totally knows what FIRST is -

-He was on i.am.FIRST: Science is Rock and Roll.
-He's invited Hall of Fame teams to the White House after their wins
(except, not yet to 1114 - I think their invite got lost at the border :( )
-He's invited teams from all FIRST programs to the White House Science Fair each year.

He knows FIRST - it's just a matter of getting him in the right city at the right time.

:)

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

I think this is a great idea

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

I noted such in the petition ^u^ That was part of what made me think of it, along with seeing the petitions to do with NASA and STEM programs.

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

He's also been introduced to FLL teams from the Palestinian side of Jerusalem during his visit last week =]

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

Team 842 Falcon Robotics was never invited and we would love to have gone....Oh well...

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

Petition Signer #50 :)

Going to spread it around on Facebook and share with my team.

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

I love this petition so much! But nothing is going to happen if we don't share it with others!!! Even if every team attending St. Louis (~400) had 5 members sign it, there would only be 2,000 signatures. If all FRC teams had 10 members sign it, (~2,000) that would only cover 20,000 of the signatures.

So, if we want this to happen, exposure and presence is key! Have FIRST send an email to all teams! Create a public Facebook event! Utilize the wonders of social media to their fullest extent! Let's make this work!

Go hard or go home! :D

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

I, for one, vote nay.
I foresee security measures that would bog down the event and make it unpleasant for the attendees.

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

I'm with Ed

Although it would be great if he came the security logistics would be a nightmare.

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

I doubt that it will happen and I agree with Koko, but I signed the petition anyway. Just for the fun of it. :)

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

2011 was the first time under Obama that HoF teams have been invited, afaik.

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

We had the governor of Texas come to the Dallas regional a few years back and they made everyone leave the pits during the morning while they had the security team do a sweep of all of the pits. Took ages.

I could only imagine the time it would take for 400 teams and in such a large venue.

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

Great idea to raise awareness about FIRST. The logistics look difficult to make this actually happen.

While browsing this site. I found another interesting petition about the NASA sequester cuts.

This article from NBC gives a bit more detail about the cuts to NASA. Sounds like this has the potential to impact FIRST.

President Obama Coming To St. Louis
 

Hey everyone, this is my first time posting on ChiefDelphi. I saw a petition to the government trying to get President Obama to come to St. Louis and witness the competitions. I thought this would be a great opportunity for all the teams going to St. Louis, and if the President ever talks about his visit there, it would also increase the awareness of FIRST. Anyways, I'm trying to get as many people to sign this as possible, all you have to do is get an account on whitehouse.gov, takes very little time and the site is very secure, and then just sign the petition. I ask in the interest of FIRST and all the teams going to St. Louis, that everyone who reads this signs this petition. Also, if you could also share it with the rest of your team members, and then they could share it around, that would be great. Here is the link to the actual petition.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pet...souri/KZGdHPKC
And here is the link to the create an account page if you don't already have an account.https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/reg...souri/KZGdHPKC
I hope we can get President Obama to St. Louis! And I am very sorry if this goes against any of the forum rules, I tried looking through it and couldn't find anything. Thank you!

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

How would it be any different than having Bush Sr come to Atlanta?

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

Former President G. H. W. Bush was a former President when he spoke at the Championship in 2008, having left office some 15 years previous.

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

While I'm sure there would be some security protocol for a former President (a few body guards) the protocol for the current President of the United States is much higher.

As if inspection was a hassle imagine secret security inspection. :rolleyes:

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

Doesn't matter. Former presidents still keep their entire secret service for life.

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

I agree that the security would be a nightmare.

Perhaps a live feed from where ever his schedule has him on that day?

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

That law was changed either towards the end of Bill Clinton's administration or shortly thereafter. Former presidents only get 10 years.

Anyways, this is a nice theory, but, in practice, security is a hassle. I do think that the CCA team being invited to the White House is a fantastic gesture though and I do hope it continues.

-Jack

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

I can speak of this now since its after the fact.
When Obama came to Hawaii, there were talks of some members of our team possibly having dinner with him with regards to Robotics, since he visits one of his close friends in Waialua annually.
Somehow, the plans changed when he had to go back to Washington cutting his stay short in Hawaii, then coming back again to finish his vacation.
Members of our team will probably read this and ask me about it, since I told no one.....:)

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

I heard when Bush Sr. went to the Florida regional years ago he was placed too close to the volunteer lounge and the Secret Service wouldn't let the volunteers in to have breakfast. We don't need disruptions like that occurring.

Send President Obama to the championships
 

I was scrolling through the White House petition website and found this petition.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pet...souri/KZGdHPKC

Re: Send President Obama to the championships
 

I believe there is already a thread for this from about a month ago. I'll try to find it, or someone else can post a link.

Re: Send President Obama to the championships
 

Send President Obama to the St. Louis FIRST Championships!
 

Go to this link and fill out the information and petition for president Obama to to go the FIRST Robotics World Championships!!

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pet...souri/KZGdHPKC

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

Yes everyone should do it... we already have 422 out of the needed 100,000 signatures...We are almost there...

not

It is a good idea though...

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

It would be awesome, but also an absolute nightmare.

Let me preface this by saying I have been to see President Obama three times (once at the Rose Garden, once at my school, and once at another school).

If he were to come speak, people who would be able to be on the floor during his speech would have to get background checks so that list would have to be determined in advance. This isn't too complicated, but you'd have to collect full names, SSNs, residency statuses, state of residency, etc. from everyone who will be nearest to the President. These are the people the President comes around and shakes hands with and such.

The speech would have to be first thing in the morning or they'd have to clear everyone out, sweep the area, and then have everyone come back in. The biggest problem would be getting thousands of people through security, many of whom may not have government-issued IDs and I'm not sure what their policy is regarding student IDs. Even when I had a ticket to stand on the floor, I had to wait nearly an hour in line and that was a relatively small event.

Additionally, the President never arrives when he says he will. If someone says he's speaking at, say, 9 am, it's more likely to not start until 10 or later. I've been at events where people have fainted (President Obama actually stopped his speech once to let people know that someone had fainted) because of how hot it gets with everyone packed in and because you are not allowed to bring in anything to eat or drink; it all gets confiscated.

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

I'm sorry to say but I DIDN"T vote for President Obama so why would I want him at Championships?
Isn't the Championships chaotic enough?

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

Unless someone has close to 100,000 friends willing to sign this petition it is not going to happen

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

While is sounds like a great idea, I'm thinking a nice video message from the President may be a better idea.

I'm with Ed on this one, the logistics are just too insane and would disrupt the flow of an already chaotic event too much.

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

Sounds good to me!

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

This is not about politics, but having the elected leader of OUR country acknowledge the good work that we do in promoting STEM and inspiring the next generation of citizens to make our world a better place.

That being said........

Bush 41 came to speak at the CMP in Atlanta in....I think 2009. (feel free to correct me)
Bush 41 was a strong supporter of FIRST going back to 1992 (or 1993, again, correct me if I'm wrong) when he welcomed the legacy teams to the White House after the first FIRST season. He was always a strong supporter, and his visit was laced with relevance.

Arne Duncan, as Obama's secretary of Education, made a visit to Atlanta in 2010, but it was mostly platitudinal.

While a visit from our President would be welcome and provide exposure that we could benefit from, it would be a logistical nightmare and would probably detract from the event overall.

Nonetheless, I would welcome it, as long as he didn't restrict the number of discs that a Robot could hold. Oops, wait, too late, the GDC already did that. :-)

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

Not exactly.

October 2010 Obama invited HOF team FRC 341 Miss Daisy.

The next invitation was for February 7, 2012. It should have had 842 and 359 but it didn't work out for them. I don't know if it was because of a decision at FIRST or at the White House. The White House has the final word on the selection of who is coming, so it wasn't necessarily the fault of anyone at FIRST.

Other FRC representation was there including 111 on the basis that they had won the previous robotics competition, not an earlier HOF CCA.

There was no White House event in 2011.

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

This is a great idea! With all the focus nationwide on improving STEM education and focusing on the next generation's engineering challenges, I feel like we could get somewhere with this.

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

Yes I was there when President Bush Sr. spoke in 2008. I'm not sure if he still uses the Secret Service, as former presidents have the right to decline protection (the law about limiting protection to 10 years was passed in 1997 and Bush Sr., Clinton, etc. were all grandfathered in; Bush Jr. and Obama will not receive lifetime protection).

As Libby pointed out much earlier in this thread, POTUS is well aware of FIRST and the importance of STEM.

Remember all the complaints surrounding the disruption(s) caused by the BEP concert? You can multiply that by about 1000 or so if the President were to come because of all the security.

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

Actually, lifetime protection was reinstated by statute this year.

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

I would like to sincerely apologize for the first part of my above statement. I should not have aired my political laundry. The STEM program is a great program.

The second part still stands :D

Forgiven?

Send President Obama to World Championships in St. Louis!
 

Please sign this petition to send President Obama to the FIRST world championships coming up soon. It's very easy, all you have to do is create an account (which asks for just an email address and full name) and click "sign this petition". Please take a few minutes to do this and share it with your friends and teammates.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pet...souri/KZGdHPKC

Thank you for your time.

Re: Send President Obama to World Championships in St. Louis!
 

Hate to be that guy, but.......

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=115359

Re: Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!
 

When I brought up FIRST while presenting to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) a few weeks ago, they said "We love FIRST!" :) Also, OSTP recognized FIRST as well by inviting FLL, FTC, and 3 FRC teams to the 2013 White House Science Fair as well!