I wanted to thank so many of you for your interest and support. I received many emails, IMs, and a PM regarding this matter yesterday afternoon and evening. I also wanted to say that every letter to your congressperson or conversation with their staff counts. It's not everyday that these people deal with such a huge grassroots movement. FIRST teams, facilitated by the ChiefDelphi forums and email addresses on teams’ sites, have the ability to heavily influence our government. Make no mistake about it. We can be a huge lobbying group if we choose to do so. Our potential combined with a few legislators’ willingness to help us makes for a powerful combination to help change the culture of our country, which is the purpose of FIRST. This $2,000,000 over two years is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of pro-FIRST legislation that the LFFS has in the works at this time. The sky is the limit for all of us if we take our lobbying ability seriously. Everyone counts.

-Bill Gold

PS-
I just wanted to add that if you're going to write a letter, you shouldn't snail mail it to Washington D.C. Apparently, because of anthrax scares, everything mailed to Washington D.C. is delayed by a week or a few weeks. So if you're going to write letters you should fax them to the congressperson's office. But actually meeting with the congressperson's local staff in person and hand delivering the letter is most effective, especially if you ask to be informed as to the position the congressperson takes on the appropriation. That way they can see your enthusiasm and interest in person, and then relay that onto the congressperson :).

Another way to "Write Your Representative"
 

In addition to Bill's suggestions above, you can contact your Rep. electronically at the following web page:

http://www.house.gov/writerep/

Re: Another way to "Write Your Representative"
 

Thanks Jack - just sent in my team's letter via this method.

It would be nice to see our representative James Walsh get off his butt and do something good for Central New York.....

Aaron Knight
Webmaster and Videographer
Team 891: Neverending Chaos....
http://first891.topcities.com

I agree that on a moral basis, the govenrment should not give $2,000,000 (I just love the zeros) to FIRST or to NASA to give to FIRST because there are better things that it could be given to. I am even more strongly opposed to the logic that FIRST should get the money because other less worthy groups are getting it (honestly, to apply that to a more shocking situation, that"s almost like saying that stealing parts to use on your robot is alright because people steal for much worse reasons). Even though I don"t like the idea of the government giving FIRST $2,000,000 because it feels it should do something, but I believe it would give FIRST much needed publicity and would gain respect from greedy, selfish buggers because money would get the attention of profitable benefactors (if you saw that the government gave $2,000,000 to someone, you might also believe that they would be a good non-profit group to give some too as well). So I"m all for it, and I"ll get the teams in my state (there are few enough of us for me to do that) to help with this, and I"ll try and get my teamate"s father who works as the head of some part of Homeland Security to put in a good word for us ("FIRST is neccesary for the defense of freedom and democracy around the world").

...ugh...how unstructured...and such transient logic and opinion too...

So you don't think it's right for the government to give money to FIRST, but because it would end out allright in the end, you are for it anyway?

Anyway, I hate to divert the topic of this thread, but I'll see if I can add anything to this debate. The government's purpose, stated in the preamble to the constitution, is "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." Now, my first point: government-provided education promotes the general welfare. I doubt many people would argue against public education (well, the basic precept of it, that is--I know some argue against its current implementation). Funding FIRST is just a way to further educate our nation's youth. Now, onto my second point: funding FIRST is an investment in the future. As Dean Kamen said at a meeting on Capitol Hill, we shouldn't be begging congress for money and grants, or paying homage to buisnessmen ... they should be coming to us and wanting to give us money, and to invest in science and technology because they see that it does them good. Now, this won't happen until our culture changes, and that is a big part of what FIRST is trying to do--spread enthusiasm for science and technology. I personally think it's great that the government wants to increase their already tremendous support for FIRST.

I hope that made at least some sense. On another note, our team was not listed. In short ... is there any way to help, even though my team was not listed?

Stephen

PS.
I know this is about patents and copyrights, but it at least shows that the framers saw promoting the progress of science as a legitimate function of the federal governmet.

It is best not to use e-mail to contact representatives- in my experiences only 5.8% (seriously) actually pay attention to e-mails from people. Believe me, snail mail all the way.

Fax it, as mentioned above, because of the 2-week delay in fear of Anthrax.

Call me cynical, but I really can't imagine my Congressman paying a whole lot of attention to any of my corespondence, whether by FAX, letter, or e-mail. They have staffers for that - one to collect the FAXes, another to peruse the e-mail, and a third to at least count the number of quarantined letters.

OTOH, being poll driven, what they do pay attention to are "the numbers". If they get reports from a bunch of staffers about thousands of hits each regarding a single topic, then they just may ask a senior staffer to look into it.

So, I would not rule out any mechanism that just might get their attention, even if the odds were strongly against any particular one of them.

Unlike deciding whether to go with wheels or tracks, or skid versus swerve steer, this is not an XOR decision!

PS: Sorry for any mis-spelling, My Windoze is dead and my Linux-Mozilla doesn't do Java.

The following is another memo from Norma Hammes…


This memo follows up on last week's memo regarding Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren's $2 million appropriations request. As you may recall, a working group of FIRST parents, teachers, & mentors, LFFS (Legislation For FIRST Students) has asked participants in FIRST teams in selected geographic areas to contact their Congress Members (who are members of the Appropriations Subcommittee that will consider the FIRST appropriation request) & ask them to express their support for the appropriations request by signing on to a group letter written by Congresswoman Lofgren or, if they prefer, write their own letter of support.

At this point, we need to collect information from those of you who have made those contacts with your Congress Member.

1) If you have mailed a letter to your Congress Member -- to their Washington DC address, unfortunately your letter may not be received for several weeks. Due to the anthrax attack, all mail delivered by the US Postal Service to Capitol Hill is subjected to a lengthy process to check for anthrax. Therefore, if you have mailed a letter to Washington, please follow up by faxing a copy of it to the local office as well as the Washington office. Then call them to follow up (Go to step #2).

2) If you have mailed or faxed a letter or emailed your support for the appropriations request to your Congress Member, now is the time for you to follow up on your previous letter/email. Call the office you mailed it to (local/Washington) and ask to speak to the staff person who will be handling this appropriations request. Talk to that staff person, explain your request and make sure they received it and are aware of your prior letter/email to them. [Go to step #4 below]

3) If you have met with your Congress Member's local staff person, now is the time to follow up with them also. Call the staff person you met with to remind them of your request. [Go to step #4 below]

4) Ask that staff person whether the Congress Member has decided to support the request yet. If they have agreed to support it, ask them if they will be signing Congresswoman Lofgren's letter of support or writing their own letter. If they will be writing their own letter, ask them to do so within the next few days and to make sure to send a copy to David Carreiro (ph 202-225-3072) in Congresswoman Lofgren's office. If they have agreed to sign on to a group letter, they should immediately contact David Carreiro. IMPORTANT: Make sure to get this staff person's full name and direct telephone number and email address.

5) If they will not commit to writing/signing a letter of support immediately, proceed to set up a meeting with the local office of the Congress Member, as outlined in the earlier emails. Do not take "no" for an answer & do not take "he'll think about it" for an answer either. If the Congress Member wants to think about it, emphasize that a decision probably will be made by the Subcommittee in early June, so there is not much time to think about it.

6) Then email a report of what you have found out (including staff member's name, phone & email) to Norma Hammes at norma@goha.com. We need to compile a list of Congress Members who are willing to support the appropriations request & what specifically they are willing to do.

If you have any questions about this process, please feel free to call Norma Hammes at 408-297-8750 or email me.

Thank you all for your important work on this matter.
Norma Hammes

Yes, most congressmen do it this way. I believe that usually phone calls represent 1,000 people wanting something, a hand written letter counts as 100, and an email or fax counts as 10. Even though some methods count less than others, if calling makes you uncomfortable, just remember as long as you do something to try to make a difference, any little bit helps. Also remember, Congressmen try to get reelected every two years so bringing "pork" projects to their districts is highly favorable to both parties so I'm sure they're listening.

From my experience with administrations and red tape and politics (believe me, I went through a lot to get team 639 rolling), the best way to get what you want from people in power is to keep on bugging them, in person or phone or the most direct method possible. They have a very difficult time turning down someone staring them in the eye. While this may not literally be possible, if they know they are being watched, they will probably vote in your favor. Seriously, I don't think there will be people making phone calls to politicians opposing the appropriation, so if you all can let your senators know you're there, you will succeed.

I hate special interests, but as long as we have them, you might as well take your share of the pie.

- Patrick

Team 294 can help, we are really good friends with Senator Bowen, I don't know about the government that much, but i think it will help. She loves us. :D

Indeed, 487 I'm sure will pledge support. Around the Philadelphia area, I will see what i can do with our loca representatives and getting votes in the house.

To resond to those that are both for and against FIRST funding from the government, I say, why argue? Because this country was founded of free speech and freedom from tyranny. IN an ever-troublesoem age, people must make decisions for the greater whole. Is FIRST part of the greater hole?

Something Dave Lavery said at Chesapeake struck and stayed with me, that one person, because he wanted to, is heling change the world. Any person can change the world if they want it bad enough, and I want it. I'm going to take opportunities to further FIRST and interest in engineering. Engineers are helping design the inventions which will help us thrive as the human race. WE as FIRSTians should continue these dreams by any legal way possible.

Unfortunatly, Bowen is a state senator, and if I understand this right, this is in congress.

But I could be wrong.

Nope, you're right.