DC and The US Congress

[Tom Fairchild]

Hey everyone, got a question for ya - two students from our team along with two adult mentors are going to DC to speak infront of various Congress members and some large companies on July 12th. I was told that other teams were going, but I don't know who. The only one that I'm sure of is 365. Anyone know anything about this? I don't really know any of the details about the whole thing yet either. Drop a line if you're in the know.

[Matt Leese]

I don't know anything about it but I would definatley be tempted to take a trip down to DC for the day if people are going to be talking to Congress about FIRST (the being from Rochester, NY is a misnomer right now -- I'm really in Baltimore, MD). So if you could get me some more information I'd be interested in checking it out.

Matt

[Tom Fairchild]

Hey Matt, I wish I could give ya the details behind it, but I really don't know them. My mentors have just told me that I'm going to be in DC July 11th and 12th. I do know that I had to submit some personal info about myself for security clearence so it doesn't look like its going to be open to the public, sorry! If I find out anything more though, I'll be sure to let you know.

[Matt Leese]

I actually doubt that they wouldn't be open to the public. There's no real reason to hold this behind closed doors (they only tend to do that for National Security or Judicial matters). Unfortunately Congressional committees only post their schedules for the current week and not next week. My guess is that it'd be before the House Education Committee but that's just a guess. But if you can find out more information, I'd like to know about it.

Matt

[Carolyn Duncan]

Hey Tom,
Who else is going on your team? Don't get into trouble up there, that means no trashing the room and beware of bleach blondes wearring wife beaters!
C~ya,
Carolyn

[Tom Fairchild]

Hey Carolyn! Its actually going to be me and your good 'ole bud Stephen (And yes - I still do have those pictures!!) representing teh students along with Jeff and Mrs. Talmage representing the mentors. I'm really looking forward to it though. See ya around,

~Tom~

[mpking]

Originally posted by Tom Fairchild
Hey Matt, I wish I could give ya the details behind it, but I really don't know them. My mentors have just told me that I'm going to be in DC July 11th and 12th. I do know that I had to submit some personal info about myself for security clearence so it doesn't look like its going to be open to the public, sorry! If I find out anything more though, I'll be sure to let you know.

Well, not to spoil the surprise.

In any chance that you'll be meeting The President, The Vice President, any of The Cabinet, or being on the Congressional Floor, you need a security clearence.

The background check is them making sure (superficially) that you have declared your intent to destroy the goverment, murder anyone, or what not.

Basiclly they don't want a raving lunitic in close personal contact with the dignataries of the goverment, with out them knowing it.

[Karl]

Originally posted by mpking

The background check is them making sure (superficially) that you have declared your intent to destroy the goverment, murder anyone, or what not.

Don't you mean "...making sure (superficially) that you have not declared your intent..." ? I sure hope that's how it works, at least .

[mpking]

Originally posted by Karl


Don't you mean "...making sure (superficially) that you have not declared your intent..." ? I sure hope that's how it works, at least .

I was wondering if anyone was gonna catch that.

[Carolyn Duncan]

You get to go with Stephen, the chick magnet?! Just think you could be going with someone who is quiet and has swarms of girls without even looking up. About those pics, let's just leave that alone. Well, actually it doesn't matter anymore. I've graduated and informed a certain individual of my very honest opinion of the way things were. By the way, I never did get to see the pics on the disk. What were most of them of? Have fun on your adventure and don't say um! C~ya,
Carolyn

[Justin]

Hey...maybe the testimony will be on CSPAN and we can all watch it when they replay if 10 times that evening between the hours of 1am - 5am

-Justin

[mike o'leary]

its not like any of us sleep during those hours

[David Kelly]

Originally posted by Justin
Hey...maybe the testimony will be on CSPAN and we can all watch it when they replay if 10 times that evening between the hours of 1am - 5am

-Justin

i prefer CSPAN-2.


not really, they are both boring

[Tom Fairchild]

Well, just to let you guys know, I don't think it was on CSPAN, but we did have a lot of photographers. The whole thing was a lot of fun, and we even got a lot of time to talk to Dean. Definitly one to remember.

~Tom~

[John Larock]

Here is some information about this event:

Event: Science Day on Capitol Hill

Participants: The Science Coalition - a group of college/university representatives (mainly) and some others. Podesta/Mattoon - a DC lobbying group.

Purpose: A day for university professors to lobby congress in an organized way for more funding for technology programs.

FIRST involvement: Dean Kamen was the keynote speaker at a breakfast. The FIRST folks wanted to also show the universities and congresspeople what FIRST robotics is about. Four FIRST teams participated: Teams #53, #116, #122, and #365. The teams consisted of the team robot and 5-6 student and adult representatives.

Teams basically were on hand to show off their robots and to talk with university reps (mostly) and congresspeople (some) about their experience with FIRST.

Dean had about 15 minutes to talk. He brought the I-Bot and what looked like a possible sterling engine. I believe his plan was to talk a bit and then show a video about FIRST. However, hisis talk went overtime and he did not get a chance to even show the video.

I believe that this was a good event to expose more colleges and universities to FIRST. Dean made an effort to encourage more college involvement with FIRST.

From a congress side, no team member spoke to the whole group. Conversation was between individual team members and whoever came over to see the robot or whoever we could corral to talk about it. Some people hung around to talk, while others just looked. Our team (365 - DuPont Miracle Workerz) had more conversations with university professors. We also did speak to staffers of our state representatives.

It was a very nice experience for our team members. It also gave us a chance to interact on a more personal level with members from other teams. We did get a chance to chat with Dean a bit. I asked him about next year's game. His response was "this game is so sick that even I am nervous about it." Relevant fact or misleading clue -- you be the judge.