Chief Delphi - ALERT: FIRST Legislation Needs Your Help

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I am a team leader for team 979 and I will talk to my team about it. I'm not sure about how much support we can provide. But we will try to do anything within our power to help. Team 979 roxxx.

I don't represent the opinion of my team in making this statement, but I'm going to throw it out there anyway.

I love FIRST, and I love being part of my team. I understand many teams have financial difficulty. But I still don't think that means FIRST should get federal government money.

First off, there would be several problems arising from this money. What do we do with it? Do we sponsor more teams? Do we help teams struggling for cash? Do we lower the registration fee for regionals? Should the "richer," more adequately (sp?) teams get this financial help too? Say teams do get financial help, what do they do? Can you imagine telling the judges how you raised $1000 less this year because you "got money from the government." Something tells me they won't be impressed.

A large part of the "Spirit of FIRST," is the unity of teams, built through fundraising activities, building the robot etc. Although it may be much much easier to get federal government money, I think FIRST might also be losing something. Things will never be the same after this. Should we keep asking for more money, as FIRST grows, year after year after year? Would we come to EXPECT that the government pay us more money every year?

Second, I just have problems in general with the government funding too many special interests and organizations. Fact is, there's a lot of good causes out there. Not even our government can give to them all. It's not the government's job to do so. Frankly, we must come up with better ways for FIRST to be recognized. If I had never heard of FIRST before in my life, but I saw on the news that the government had approved $2 million funding for it, I wouldn't develop a positive image of FIRST in my head. Instead I'd think, "It's just another 'good cause' mooching off govenment dollars." Is this how we want FIRST to be known? As a greedy organization that expects government money?

Frankly, I'd rather see the government cut back on all these handouts and continue with tax relief. Think about it. Many of the corporations that sponsor FIRST teams pay MILLIONS of dollars a year in taxes. Cutting taxes would not only help these companies, but also help them turn a profit, which would mean many of them could once again think about sponsoring charities and organizations, like FIRST.

It is not the government's job to hand us money, even if our cause is a great one. We have always relied on corporate sponsorship and fundraising. Let's keep it this way. We should not develop this mentality that the government owes us money just because we are such a great group of people (although that's true, we are a great group of people). It's EASY to take money being handed to you. But is it really what's best for FIRST? Is it what's best for our government, to continually hand out millions of dollars to every good cause that comes its way? I would love FIRST to get extra money as much as anyone else, but let's be illogical.

I understand many of you will hate/disagree with me on this. But I just hope you think long and hard about this.

Quote:

Second, I just have problems in general with the government funding too many special interests and organizations. Fact is, there's a lot of good causes out there. Not even our government can give to them all. It's not the government's job to do so.

Too bad that the vast majority of science research is funded by the government.:rolleyes: Government funding has gone up for engineering. In fact engineering is second to the life sciences in the amount of funding. We might as well get a piece of the pie.

Re: ALERT: FIRST Legislation Needs Your Help

Count us in (team 1399). BTW the link on the post is unavailable. Could you send me the correct link?

Thanks :]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Gold

Hello fellow FIRST Robotics Competition participants,

As some of you know, U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren visited the 2003 Silicon Valley Regional and pledged to help FIRST gain federal money to support the FIRST Robotics Competition. Working hand in hand with a small group of FIRST veterans known as Legislation for FIRST Students (LFFS), she has requested the House Appropriations Subcommittee on VA, HUD to provide limited federal support for FIRST to the tune of $2,000,000 over two years. At this time, that $2 million would largely be used by FIRST to cut entry fee costs for FIRST teams. Getting this appropriation will not be “a walk in the park.” In order for FIRST to get this appropriation, teams in and near select congressional districts of the country will need to send letters and/or meet with their congressperson’s local staff and talk to them about supporting this request. Attached is a link to documents that include: a memo from the LFFS co-chairs (Ken Krieger & Norma Hammes) to all teams in and near congressional districts of the members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on VA, HUD, a list of teams in and near congressional districts of the members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on VA, HUD as well as their phone/fax numbers, a sample letter to your congressperson, and a brief description of the FIRST Robotics Competition that you should attach to your letter to your congressperson. Although the sample letter implies that you should only send in one letter per team from a “main contact,” it would be more effective if you sent in one letter per person (Teachers, Engineers, Parents, College Students, and Students) on the team, if at all possible. These documents should adequately prepare you to contact your congressperson, but should any problem arise, refer to the bottom of the memo and contact either Ken Krieger or Norma Hammes.

The LFFS is also committed to getting more pro-FIRST legislation passed. Although we cannot come forward with the details of these proposals yet, keep an eye out for another request of grass-roots support in other areas of the country. FIRST, being a 501c3 organization, cannot directly lobby congress, so it’s up to all of us to help FIRST expand their horizons. Thank you for your time.

http://www.seadawgs.com/LFFS/

-Bill Gold

Re: ALERT: FIRST Legislation Needs Your Help

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tazlikesrobots

Count us in (team 1399). BTW the link on the post is unavailable. Could you send me the correct link?

Thanks :]

Ah. I'm sorry. I guess the seadawgs' webmasters accidentally took that down. I'm putting it back up as I type. Try it now.