Bringing awareness of FIRST @ The workplace.

[Sayrah]

I have medals, newspaper articles and pictures hanging on the wall outside my cubicle. We have an online newletter/newspaper that is updated daily and I have submitted a few articles about the team before they attend competitions, especially the local ones, to try to entice people to attend. I have found that the article is much more likely to be included if I write it and attach a few pictures than if I just tell the communications department about the event and try to get them spun up to write it. I send emails to co-workers, managers, directors, and vice-presidents prior to competitions with the webcast url if available and then follow up after the event with a report on the team's experience/accomplishments. I've been known to carry a trophy around with me at work all day from meeting to meeting. When I happen upon someone who continues to show interest I usually try to get them to volunteer at a regional - my boss is now hooked on the competition and would like to return to judge again in 2009. This year the team brought the robot to my company on Take Your Child to Work Day and it was a big hit. Sometimes I feel like a pest, but my company hires engineers and FIRST is exactly the type of program that we need to be reinforcing with our support and presence.