[devodl]

While our team has developed a website for our FRC® team we want to expand the capabilities to meet the needs of the FIRST® program (FLL® and FRC®). We need a web based solution for communication, documentation, collaboration, web site, and source code management and it seems that Google Apps would fit the bill nicely.

Furthermore many FIRST® Robotics teams would benefit greatly by using Google Apps but there are barriers.
Google Apps for Education is used by many school districts but its use is restricted to administration, faculty, and students.
Google Apps for Non-Profits is restricted to use by 501(c)(3) organizations.

Many of the FRC teams are school sponsored (not 501(c)(3)) and in addition to students and faculty, team members include parents, mentors, and business people from multiple sponsors. As a result FRC teams fall in between the two app groups Google has established.

How can we propose the establishment of Google Apps for FIRST® ?
Contacting a human at Google is extremely difficult due to their communication process. My attempts to contact Google have met with silence. When I requested that the FIRST® National organization contact Google they came up empty as well.

Does someone have a way to send email to Dr. Eric Schmidt (Google CEO and member of the FIRST® board)?
Can a FIRST® mentor who works at Google and contact someone in Google's Corporate Responsibility organization?

Google Apps for FIRST® could provide huge benefits to FLL® and FRC® teams.

Does this make sense to others?