[JaneYoung]

If you want to think along that line a little further - go into the educational aspect of things and see where math, science, and technology fit on the ladder of importance. It doesn't take long to watch a few commercials and get an idea of how important marketing is when trying to attract attention to a product.

This society places a lot of emphasis on marketing products to people who enjoy sports, entertainment, travel. FIRST Robotics teams compete, they entertain, and travel is a given. This coming year and in the future, more wonderful, enticing locations will invite teams and fans to visit and enjoy. The key to marketing FIRST teams is that FIRST Robotics is culture changing. Promoting the mission of FIRST in the areas of math, science, and technology in our society today and into our future is the central theme. There is a good reason the President's Circle was created. Seeking sponsorship with potential sponsors and introducing the vision of FIRST, the mission of FIRST is important. Teams that are scraping by, pulling together funding to build a robot much less travel, may just think about the money but there is always that golden opportunity to take it one step further. To promote the mission of FIRST and to ask the sponsor to work in partnership in getting the word out. I may be wrong, but I think that FIRST keeps some of this in mind when they seek sponsorship for FIRST.