Falcon Robotics at the White House!

[ebarker]

a couple of thoughts,

"on a man like that..."

I think we should all view this as visiting the "President of the United States". Period. Let us not worry about who is briefly occupying this office.

Our mission is long ranging and visionary and there is no need to dwell on the current 'intrigues of the palace'.


I personally think all Championship Chairman's Winners should go to the White House and it is unfortunate that Falcon didn't get to go.

This year may be a good time for the office of the "President of the United States" to get caught up with some long overdue duties, recognizing science and engineering.

So to get caught up, the entire "Hall of Fame" should go ?

How to get this done. In my estimation this should be driven by Dean Kamen. Dean is personal friends with George H.W. Bush. Contrary to popular opinion about how Washington works, former and current presidents do talk to one another and work together when necessary. A case in point is the current transition, probably the smoothest and most disciplined in American History and undoubtedly there a measure of goodwill that exists between the Bush 41, 43, and Obama 44 administrations.

There are at most 2 degrees of separation between Dean and Obama.

It would be really cool if Obama spoke at the Championship Event in April and invited the HOF to the WH.

[Carol]

A little clarification. FIRST arranged the visit to the White House before the Championship event that year. And all three FIRST programs were invited, specifically the Chairman’s Award winner and the equivalent award winners from the FTC and FLL programs.

We actually had little time with the President, and it was very choreographed. First where was the photo op, then three of our students gave a 2 minute spiel about our team. The president spent a couple of minutes driving the robot, then left and repeated the same with the other two teams.

What is more important was that Dean spent time talking to the President beforehand. I don’t know for how long, but I’m sure he did his best to get the message and importance of FIRST across. And his best can be very good.

MOE did go through our state government to visit the governors and the senates of both DE and PA the next month. We were able to spend more time with the elected officials at that level.

[N7UJJ]

While it would be the thrill of a lifetime to meet the president, this is more of an issue about "changing the culture"

Recent headlines:


"President George W. Bush poses with members of the Arizona State University Women's Softball Team"

"The Mercury presented President Bush with a gift at the White House event. " (Phoenix Mercury = Phoenix pro woman's basketball team)

"U.S. President George W. Bush (L) poses for photographs with the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion Sameer Mishra of West Lafayette, Indiana..."

How would you rank the International Chairman's Award with the accomplishments above?

How do you think the general population of the U.S. would rank them?

Remember, ;the I and R in FIRST. Until a world class academic, engineering championship receives the coverage of an amusement team or a spelling bee, we have to keep promoting science, math, technology and engineering activities to young people, leaders and the media.


BTW, we have been lauded by our state legislature and our (ex) governor (she is now Homeland Security Czar). We have been recognized by Senator McCain's office and several state representatives. We have testified in the U.S. Congress and U.S. Representative Pastor has visited us at school (and other events) and has read a nice piece about us on the floor of the house and it is part of the Congressional record. So we have been able to garner attention from most levels of government, just not the Federal Executive branch.

[falconmaster]

Thanks for all the advice. We will work on our end to see if we can get this happen. We know its a very steep hill!

[falconmaster]

Originally Posted by Rosiebotboss

"...on a man like that?"

One thing that everyone needs to know when dealing in the politcal arena, espicially when you represent an organization, be it FIRST or Shriners Hospital or your local school district, you need to leave your personal and political views OUT of the conversation. Having dealt with politicians for several years on the local and state level, you need the office, not the person in the office.

We had a mayor once that I did not personally care for at all. But, whenever we wanted publicity, whenever we had an event and wanted press coverage, whenever I wanted to get something done for the betterment of Rosie, that involved politics, my personal feelings were put aside and I dealt with the "position", not the person. Does that make sense? I got what I wanted, he/she got a photo op, everyone was happy!!

Well said, and I agree with you 100%.

[Akash Rastogi]

Not a big deal but you guys kinda mistook what I said. Yes, we should all keep our political ideals out of it, but that was also my point in my first post about this. I too said that it shouldn't matter who you're talking to about FIRST and what you think of them.

Originally Posted by ebarker

I think we should all view this as visiting the "President of the United States". Period. Let us not worry about who is briefly occupying this office.

Feel free to disregard "...on a man like that" even though I stand by it. My entire post meant the exact same thing what you guys have echoed. Spread the message of FIRST no matte to whom it may be.

I wholeheartedly thought that 842 would have had a much different impact on any President because they are such a different team imho.