FIRST and Obama's Innovation Strategy

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by ebarker

I don't know if the White House has specifically focused on FIRST, but .... I want to state what I know.

Our team has been building a relationship with our Congressional Representative for quite a while and recently during the Congressional break we had an extremely excellent and productive meeting with him. One of the things that makes this very important is that this Congressman is the co-chair of the bi-partisan Congressional Robotics Caucus.

He asked for and we provided him with suggestions for things Congress could do to promote FIRST. He also asked us to consider presenting to the Caucus and we are working on putting that together.

In the meantime, Dean Kamen is scheduled to present to the same committee on October 15th. There may be members from few teams in attendance for support but I do not know this for fact.

We have been considering asking teams around the country to give a presentation similar to the one we gave to committee co-chair. Events are pushing things along so here goes.

If your or someone you know would like to present to a caucus member please email me for more information. The list of caucus members are below. You can present what ever you want but I would ask to do a presentation very similar to what we did. It is an executive level presentation that moves quickly and takes only about 15 minutes after introductions are done.

I would ask that we do this in a coordinated fashion so that we can maximize our impact. Email me is you can do this, in particular if you are in Rep. Mike Doyle's district.


Rep. Mike Doyle D-PA, Co-Chair
Rep. Phil Gingrey R-GA, Co-Chair ( team 1311, Kell Robotics )

Rep. Jason Altmire, D-PA
Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-WI
Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-GA
Rep. Joe Barton R-TX
Rep. Michael Capuano D-MA
Rep. Kathleen Dahlkemper D-PA
Rep. Parker Griffith, D-AL
Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-CO
Rep. John Lewis D-GA ( team 3091, 100 Scholars )
Rep. Jerry McNerney D-CA
Rep. Alan Mollohan D-WV
Rep. Dennis Moore D-KS
Rep. Jim McGovern D-MA
Rep. Tim Murphy R-PA
Rep. John Murtha D-PA
Rep. John Olver D-MA
Rep. Todd Platts R-PA
Rep. Tim Ryan D—OH (Team 48 Delphi E.L.I.T.E., as well as 276, 379, 2010, 2835, 2901, and other NEOFRA teams)
Rep. Bill Shuster R-PA
Rep. Bennie Thompson D-MS
Rep. Glenn Thompson R-PA
Rep. John F. Tierney D-MA
Rep. Niki Tsongas D-MA
Rep. Zach Wamp R-TN
Rep. Robert Wittman R-VA
Rep. Bill Young R-FL

My man, Tim Ryan. We don't need to convince him to promote FIRST. Having been hooked by 48 and other local teams, he already secured $150k plus in grant funding for local FIRST expansion, which, in conjunction with immediate startup support from 48 and other NEOFRA teams, has led to 3 new FRC teams, a new FTC team, 7+ new FLL teams, and has provided supplemental funding to existing teams, with extra to spare.

In our case, the grant funding is being administered by the Trumbull County Educational Service Center, and as a byproduct, they are learning more about FIRST and developing ways to foster connections, collaboration, and resource sharing among local teams. NEOFRA's will be done.