[waialua359]

Originally Posted by ebarker

I want to follow on this comment one more time. I’m assuming “highest moment” you are referring to is the visit to the White House on February 7, 2012.

Yes, FIRST really messed this one up. The 2011 CA team should have been there, absolutely no doubt. How they made the decisions they did I have no clue !

Why is this important and to whom ?

The event was symbolically important to the generic STEM community. It signals to the world that the White House views STEM activities as important. That is the power of the bully pulpit. But there are real limitations.

Most Americans view the president as the all-powerful authoritative man who governs the country as he pleases from his oval office. The existing situation regarding the presidency and his power is actually on the contrary according to presidential scholars.

President Truman once said of President Eisenhower upon his election, "He'll sit there all day saying do this, do that, and nothing will happen. Poor Ike, it won’t be a bit like the military. He'll find it very frustrating."

After enormous effort preparing to go there, arriving, participating, and returning, we ask ourselves what are the outcomes ? From a public policy perspective it has some importance ( subject to President Truman’s comments ). The President seemed to really enjoy himself, getting away from the headaches of daily life, foreign policy, the economy, etc. From a personal, team, or local perspective it isn’t so impactful. There were maybe 100+ students there.

The White House event was a public policy moment. For the White House, for FIRST, the team, and other STEM stakeholders, pure and simple. Each of these parties have a strong case for making a public policy statement. This is important because......

Sure, the trip was important for helping build a public policy case for supporting STEM education. The White House trip was important and our trip to the Congressional briefing on 2010 was also. We went as public policy pawns, and there is nothing wrong with that. ( In reality the President has probably had a bigger STEM impact with Race to the Top. But will.i.am has probably done a better job of attracting students to FIRST than the President. )

I would strongly caution anyone from assuming it is the “high point of our life or career”. I would double that caution when describing it as the highest moment of FIRST. In fact I will state unequivocally here and now that it isn’t the highest moment of FIRST. It even doesn’t even come close.

The highest moment of FIRST is the profound and life changing moments that thousands students are experiencing right now. Nothing, absolutely nothing about the White House experience even comes close !!


epilogue: If you watch our Chairman's video we talk about the 120+ events we have done. A ton of working in the sphere of public policy, working on the culture, attitudes, etc. We have students that have been doing these things for as long as four years. It has led to a saying on the team "another day in the life of kell robotics". Not to discount the WH experience, it really did feel like "another day in the life ....."

Ed,
First of all, thanks for sharing in detail. I hear you and totally understand.
And yes, it is what I was referring to.

Without getting into detail (something we can one day talk about face-face), my whole issue is the message they send to all of us, regardless of the impact it really has.
I can give tons of analogies about our experiences while working with our local government and agencies, sponsors, and the news media about the concerns you bring up and to what extent it has towards the stakeholders.

Does it really matter for concerns you bring up? Is it something we have control of?

When people, colleagues, friends, families and business leaders see what the goals of FIRST are, explicitly stated, and see actions that say essentially "Winning is everything," how would you explain that?

Regardless of any event that happens external to our team, we have reasons why we do what we do for our participation in FIRST.
The best personal example is this season, as we have done arguably more than any other year, and not even applying for an RCA.