Political Activism "Dean's Homework"

[N7UJJ]

I'm not really politically savy, but I would think that state congressmen might be more recptive to high school students inviting them to the regional competitions or to speak at a meeting/presentation. I think writng to your representitives may do some real good.

Like fund raising, not much may happen at first. It may not be until they hear about your team or FIRST the third or fourth time that they start to notice.

I think this year we are going to make appointments with our reps and visit them. Cna't hurt.

[chris31]

Can people post the letters that they have sent. Im curriuos what all you said and how you said it.

[KelliV]

Here is my suggestion...
E-mail letters instead of writing them!
When I went to DC this year we got to see all the letters that are sent to my representatives. They were all gross and mangeled becuase of all the sterilizing that needs to be done. My representative said it is best to e-mail him (as well as all of the other representatives) becuase it is easy to read and not all mangeled and cut.
They also reply quicker to e-mail than to handwritten letters.
I got an answer from Senator Obama that I sent for Student Government in around a week or so for my e-mail compared to my three weeks for the letter.

[Protronie]

Even though I not officially on a team I've sent Howard Coble a email and link to the First website hes been a good friend to NC in the state house.
Don't forget the local levels either. I've a buddy on the country commissioners that I'm meeting with after church tomorrow... got a video tape of todays kick off for him to see. Hope nobody sues me for copyright infringement.
Anyhow if the country and give 25k for a pop warner football team I think they might be good for a few bucks.

[falconmaster]

Hey some good news!
In AZ there is a group that the governor has called the P-20 Council on Education. They meet several times a year to discuss future education in Arizona. We got the council to agree to hold their meeting at the Arizona Regional. Anybody who is anybody in education in AZ will be there, including the Governor!
In addition to this great news, we got the Governor to do the opening ceremonies at the Lego State Tournament this past Dec 9! It feels like we are making headway. Next is to group our AZ teams to pressure the state legislature to start funding after school academic activities, like FIRST teams!
We plan on starting the e-mailing your representative and senators campaign Monday!!

[Lil' Lavery]

While this is outstanding progress, and a very noteworthy accomplishment, work is far from over. If you havn't yet talked to your representative (and others), do it! And that means local, state, and national legislature reps, not just the US Congress (yeah, I'm one upping Dean's assignment). Do whatever you can to help advance FIRST in your region.
Luckily for 116 (and thanks to Motorola and Wildstang), we had a chance to speak to several representatives, senators, etc. at the Tap2015 Conference in June (a fair in which dozens of major corporations were showing how they tried to increase America's standing in math, science, technology and engineering by 2015). Motorola was granted extra space, and was kind enough to ask us to join Wildstang's FRC team with some of our Vex material to advertise the potential of Vex.
But I bet someone out there has done something better than that (particularly you NH teams!), so we're not finished, and niether should any other team (and it certainly doesn't seem like anyone is resting). Keep up the work, and keep spreading FIRST.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schuetze

While browsing the new FIRST website, I came across an article link regarding how the State of Rhode Island is funding FIRST Vex teams for every high school. It appears to be part of their regular academic program. Making it mandatory to have a robotics team at each school just as society requires a sports team at every school.

I have sent the following email to my two US Senators for Texas, my US representative, and a State Senator. Please consider doing the same, especially if you are from TEXAS!



I encourage you to read the following article on how Rhode Island is putting in place a systemic process whereby every high school has a robotics team.

I was catching up on email and found this.
February 1, 2007

Dear Jane:

Thank you for your communication regarding the successes of the
LASA Robotics Team and for sharing the article about Rhode
Island's efforts to expand science and math education through
robotics. Please let me know of future LASA Robotics events and
successes.

I would also appreciate your thoughts on other issues that may be
considered in Congress. If you have not already, please take a
moment to visit my website at www.house.gov/doggett where you
can complete a survey online.

Please keep me advised of any federal matters on which I may be
of assistance.


Sincerely,
Lloyd

---------------
U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett
201 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-4865, (512) 916-5921
http://www.house.gov/doggett

The team is getting ready to send their homework letter/invitation that Mr. Kamen has requested and I responded to Mr. Doggett to keep a look out for it.

[Zero-Bee]

My senators havent replied to me or anything.

I sent it weeks ago. Can't say I didn't try...

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Zero-Bee

My senators havent replied to me or anything.

I sent it weeks ago. Can't say I didn't try...

This is what I'm thinking Andrew -
that what you just said is the whole point. We're trying.
I wrote Mr. Doggett in mid-December as per Mr. Schuetze's request at the beginning of this thread. I just got this email on Feb. 1. I wrote several others as well and and am happy to have one response that mentions our team's name. It makes me think next year will be easier and I'll write even more letters. The important thing is that you did your homework with a great attitude and in a timely manner. That's GP right there.

.02
Jane

[Zero-Bee]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

This is what I'm thinking Andrew -
that what you just is said is the whole point. We're trying.
I wrote Mr. Doggett in mid-December as per Mr. Schuetze's request at the beginning of this thread. I just got this email on Feb. 1. I wrote several others as well and and am happy to have one response that mentions our team's name. It makes me think next year will be easier and I'll write even more letters. The important thing is that you did your homework with a great attitude and in a timely manner. That's GP right there.

.02
Jane

Thanks. But it's still kinda dissapointing. The most I got was simply those automated email responces that anyone can get, and are mostly generic "I get alot of letters, I'll try to get to your in a timely manner" and that load of stuff.

But, what can you do? I guess just try harder next time.

Anyhow, your post did make me feel a bit better, so thanks again.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Zero-Bee

But, what can you do? I guess just try harder next time.

Well, here's some more of what I have been thinking about.
Mr. Doggett asked me to keep him up on the team's successes.

Ok - but what are successes? Are they wins - as in competitions?
Or are they more than that -
a great demonstration to children who have never seen a robot & its group of students who are passionate about robotics -
a fundraiser that involves the whole school community -
a workshop with young children from dire circumstances that are succeeding in being a part of a team effort for 2 hours without having a panic attack or acting out
salvaging your robots from inches of rain in your shop because of a hole in the school's roof during a storm over the weekend
having students at risk graduate and go on to college, majoring in engineering

--
that's what else I'm thinking about and it's probably going to be some of the successes Mr. Doggett and other officials are going to be hearing about.

It's not easy dealing with the reality that others aren't as passionate as we are and that the process may be slower than we want it to be - but it gives me plenty of time to think and prepare...

thank you Andrew - you helped me find words for my thoughts.
Jane

[Zero-Bee]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

thank you Andrew - you helped me find words for my thoughts.

No problem. That tends to happen alot.

[Danny Diaz]

LASA Robotics (team 418) had a very unique opportunity yesterday that I would like to share with you all.

The American Youth Policy Forum plans a series of field trips to help state policy leaders learn more about high school redesign. It is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supports the Honor States Grant Program, an initiative of the National Governors Association (NGA), by providing hands-on professional development activities to governors, their staffs, members of state boards of education, and other education leaders. You can find more about these trips by going to:

http://www.aypf.org/projects/statehsreformtrips.htm

On their most recent scheduled trip the legislators visited Austin, Texas, and came specifically to LBJ High School / LASA. The themes of the visit was to discuss how to best forge public-private partnerships to improve graduation and college-readiness rates, and also about what Texas has done to increase the number of high school graduates with strong backgrounds in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).

As part of the STEM discussion, the legislators wanted to speak with our team coach, Tony Bertucci, about his nationally recognized robotics curriculum and also about the opportunities and benefits that competitive robotics (FIRST being a strong highlight) brings to a students overall experience. Team 418 treated the legislators to a personalized demonstration of several FIRST robots (from the past 3 years, unfortunately Phunky is still in transit) and spoke with them as a group and individually/personally about their learning experiences in the FIRST program and in their robotics education.

What makes this an even more unique experience for us is that we not only had access to our own Texas state legislators, but we had access to:

Representative Donald Blakey - Delaware
Senator Sharon Weston Broome - Louisiana
Senator Scott P. Brown - Massachusettes
Representative Hollis Downs - Mississippi
Representative Derrick Graham - Kentucky
Representative Mindy Greiling - Minnesota
Representative Scott Hochberg - Texas
Representative Avon R. Honey - Louisiana
Representative Joni Jenkins - Kentucky
Representative Sherra Lane - Mississippi
Representative Carol McFarlane - Minnesota
Senator Yvonne B. Miller - Virginia
Representative David Myers - Mississippi
Representative Dora Olivo - Texas
Representative Alice Hanlon Peisch - Massachusettes
Representative Frank Rasche - Kentucky
Senator Karen Spilka - Massachusettes
Representative Marsha Swails - Minnesota
Senator Jack Westwood - Kentucky
Senator Ken Winters - Kentucky

It was a real treat for us when they told us that they enjoyed our demonstration/presentation much more than anything else on their trip thus far, and after sitting in on their panel discussion about TSTEM and Public-Private partnerships I can certainly relate.

Anyway, we're excited that we had the opportunity to reach out to such a diverse group of legislators and could proselytize the FIRST message.

-Danny

[RoboMom]

Originally Posted by Zero-Bee

Thanks. But it's still kinda dissapointing. The most I got was simply those automated email responces that anyone can get, and are mostly generic "I get alot of letters, I'll try to get to your in a timely manner" and that load of stuff.

But, what can you do? I guess just try harder next time.

Anyhow, your post did make me feel a bit better, so thanks again.

Andrew, I am just seeing this post. The teams in Maryland and the organizers of the Chesapeake Regional did an A+ job this year with Dean's Homework, so don't think that your letters didn't help. Just to sum up:

Chesapeake Regional
Government Officials in Attendance

(See photo gallery at www.chesapeakefirst.org & Bios of all who spoke at Regional Event attached)

Chuck Campbell Deputy Chief Information Office, Veterans Health Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Jon W. Dudas Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
Dr. Delores Etter Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research,
Development and Acquisition
Margaret A. (Peggy) Focarino Deputy Commissioner for Patent Operations for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
* The Honorable Carlos M. Gutierrez U. S. Secretary of Commerce
Eugene Huang White House Fellow, U. S. Department of Treasury
Dave Lavery Telerobotics Technology Program Manager, Program Executive for Solar System Exploration, NASA headquarters
Dr. Kathie L. Olsen Deputy Director, National Science Foundation (NSF)
B. J. Penn Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Installations and Environment
Terri Prayer Program Development Specialist for the State Office for Career and Technology Education & School-to-Careers for the District of Columbia Public Schools, Washington, D.C.
Honorable John Sarbanes U. S. House of Representatives (MD, 3rd District)
Capt. Rick White U.S. Navy Director Engineering and Weapons Division, USNA
Benjamin Wu Assistant Secretary for the Capital Region, Senior Advisor for Technology Policy for the State of Maryland

In Attendance:
Honorable Curt Anderson House of Delegates, State of Maryland
Kimberly M. Brodie Special Assistant Office of Educational Technology
US Department of Education
Christian Caballero White House Fellow, U S Department of Agriculture
John Calvert, Administrator, Inventors Assistance Program, USPTO
Jason Scott Dean White House Fellow, U S Department of Education
Honorable John Doll Commissioner for Patent Operations, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
Jeffrey William Eggers White House Fellow, National Security Council
Tony Fowler U S Department of Education
Honorable Peter Franchot Comptroller, State of Maryland
Dr. Patrica Gruber Director of Research, Office of Naval Research, U S Department of the Navy
Miguel Damian Howe White House Fellow, Millennium Challenge Corporation
Adam Jacoff NIST Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory
William Jeffrey Director, NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
Bedouin Leclerc Joseph White House Fellow, Office of Management and Budget
Kathie Kirik Program Analyst, Office of the Commissioner for Patents, USPTO
Frederick William Kacher White House Fellow, Homeland Security Agency
Westley Watende Moore White House Fellow, U S Department of State
Michael E. Newman, Director Media Relations Public & Business Affairs NIST
Denise Nooe Office of U S Senator Barbara Mikulski
Jocelyn Jones Pickford White House Fellow, U S Internal Revenue Service
George Ruiz White House Fellow, U S Department of Veterans Affairs
Lena Sene White House Fellow U S Department of Housing and Urban Development
Brigid Smith Director of Government, Business & Community Affairs Office of Congressman John Sarbanes, U S House Of Representatives
Mark DuBois Smith White House Fellow NASA
Jeffrey Daniel Stern White House Fellow, U. S. Department of Interior
Mark Vincent Vlasic White House Fellow, Department of Defense
Albert J. Wavering Chief, Intelligent Systems Division, NIST Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory

State of Maryland official acts by the Governor on behalf of FIRST:

1. Team 1719 successfully submitted the proposal:
Governor O'Malley proclaimed Friday, March 16, 2007 as FIRST Robotics Challenge Program Day in Maryland

2. On April 17, 2007
The 350+ mentors in FIRST from Maryland have been selected to receive a "2007 Governor's Volunteer Service Award for Youth."
Successful submission of the proposal (originally was for an individual) by Jenny Beatty.

Attendance by MD Congressional Delegation

Team 1111 invited Congressman Sarbanes and Senator Mikulski to Chesapeake.

[Andrew Schuetze]

What to do now that the Regionals are over and Championship is days away. Follow up with all of your emails. We need to build relationships with our elected officials. What does one say in a follow up email? If you had any positives from your competition or season, tell them about them. Personalize the note a bit. Include a short note about how your team hosted a group of students and teachers from Brazil for two weeks while they were here for the competition.

If you are a team in Texas, send them this very important follow-up: State Senator Leticia Van De Putte has reserved exhibit space in the Basement of the Capitol building Rotunda for the entire week of April 23rd - 27th. This space will be used to highlight the various robotics programs that exist in Texas. Each day a different school(s) and team will demonstrate their robot in this space and be recognized on the Senate floor by their representative. Call, Email, Fax, or send your State Senator and State Representative asking them to stop by and visit with the teams that are there each day. Let them know that this is an opportunity for them to learn a bit more about the competitions and see actual robots without having to leave their offices or the capitol building. They won't have to travel and miss possibly important legislative buisiness to get a taste of what it is we all do. The schedule is as follows:
Texas Robot Exposition Schedule of programs

Mon, 4/23 - EARLY & GEAR EISD LBJ and Perales elementary schools
Tue, 4/24 - Botball EISD E. T. Wrenn middle school
Wed, 4/25 - BEST Austin area teams ...
Thu, 4/26 - FIRST Lego League & VEX Austin area teams ...
Fri, 4/27 - FIRST EISD 0499 Toltechs & AISD LASA 0418 Purple Haze

How did this come about and who is organizing it? It was a follow up email that I sent to State Senator Van De Putte last July. Our team first contacted her and other officials in 2005 when we were asking for help with obtaining Texas memorialbilia for the Brazillian teams that we coming to the Lone Star Regional. Our team served as ambassadors to several of the Brazilian and Ecuadorian teams that year.

So keep in contact and keep sending them letters, good will eventually come of these efforts and may take some time to get rolling.