Petition for President Obama to attend the Championship!

[MooreteP]

Originally Posted by Wayne Doenges

I'm sorry to say but I DIDN"T vote for President Obama so why would I want him at Championships?
Isn't the Championships chaotic enough?

This is not about politics, but having the elected leader of OUR country acknowledge the good work that we do in promoting STEM and inspiring the next generation of citizens to make our world a better place.

That being said........

Originally Posted by Alexa Stott

It would be awesome, but also an absolute nightmare.

If he were to come speak, people who would be able to be on the floor during his speech would have to get background checks so that list would have to be determined in advance. This isn't too complicated, but you'd have to collect full names, SSNs, residency statuses, state of residency, etc. from everyone who will be nearest to the President. These are the people the President comes around and shakes hands with and such.

Bush 41 came to speak at the CMP in Atlanta in....I think 2009. (feel free to correct me)
Bush 41 was a strong supporter of FIRST going back to 1992 (or 1993, again, correct me if I'm wrong) when he welcomed the legacy teams to the White House after the first FIRST season. He was always a strong supporter, and his visit was laced with relevance.

Arne Duncan, as Obama's secretary of Education, made a visit to Atlanta in 2010, but it was mostly platitudinal.

While a visit from our President would be welcome and provide exposure that we could benefit from, it would be a logistical nightmare and would probably detract from the event overall.

Nonetheless, I would welcome it, as long as he didn't restrict the number of discs that a Robot could hold. Oops, wait, too late, the GDC already did that. :-)