We’re going to Atlanta! And we thought how great it would be if a surprise speaker turned out to be Barack Obama. So we sent him an invitation. If your team agrees that we can all inspire our president, please join us and send your own invitation. Here’s what we wrote:
On Behalf of FIRST Robotics team 1807, the Allentown Redbird Robotics, we would like to invite you to attend the FIRST Championship Event held at the Georgia Dome on April 16, 17 and 18.
FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, and there is no group more inspired, dedicated, creative and hard working than a FIRST Robotics team. We will be attending this event with over 10,000 other students from around the country and the world, along with their teachers, parents and mentors. Passionate students who will be our future scientists, mathematicians and engineers.
We realize that there are many demands on your time, but we are certain that even a short visit with all of us will strengthen your hope for our future. As you have inspired this country, let this group of students inspire you.
Great idea! We’ll draft something up as well. It’d be great to get teams from all over, as well, to join in to show how important FIRST can be in developing the potential for our country’s future.
From Team 1987 who fired off letter Jan 4th or so:
With our 400-500 letters sent this year, we have had responses from Kit Bond, Matt Bartle, and now Mr. Obama. The reply came through email to our mentor, Mr. H.
Here it it:
“Thank you for inviting President Obama to attend the Kansas City Regional FIRST Robotics Competition.
The President values each and every invitation, but due to time constraints, he must decline the majority he receives. We have reviewed your invitation, and unfortunately, the President will be unable to attend.
As you noted in your letter, President Obama has sought to prioritize science and math education and teacher recruitment. As he has said, “We need to recruit an army of new teachers. I’ll make this pledge: If you commit your life to teaching, America will pay for your college education. We’ll recruit teachers in math and science, and deploy them to under-staffed school districts in our inner cities and rural America. We’ll expand mentoring programs that pair experienced teachers with new recruits. And when our teachers succeed, I won’t just talk about how great they are—I’ll reward their greatness with better pay and more support.” We thank you for partnering in this pursuit as a science and math mentor, and we appreciate your understanding. We thank you and your organization for your contributions in this pursuit, and we appreciate your understanding.
To be brutally honest, I doubt any current president will be able to attend Champs. Here’s my reasoning:
A. It’s open to the general public. This makes security an even larger nightmare.
B. Teams enter and exit with toolcrates constantly. This creates a security environment that is inoperable for a president. It would be disturbingly easy to smuggle a firearm into a FRC competition, hence the lack of likely hood of his attending.
C. We’re not big enough. This is the president we’re talking about here, folks. This is the most powerful man in the world. We aren’t big enough yet. We’re close, but this is the man who single-handedly packs millions for speeches.
I agree with your rational, but I will also point out that last year when George Bush Sr. Spoke at nationals no one really knew about it ahead of time.
My guess is that sort of planning could be used, because if there is no way of knowing if he will show up, no one will plan for it. This generally would make security much easier (Again, note the security detail at the event when George Bush Sr. was in Atlanta, it seemed to me to be quite light, even if he is an ex-president).
My 2cents anyways, I’m sure there are plenty of good reasons for him not to come, but I wouldn’t rule it out completely. And there’s always Deans plan of taking everyone to the Washington mall in a few years too.
the security for a presidential visit would SCREW UP the entire event. nobody could get into the arena that entire day without being searched. it’s a nice thought, but I don’t really think it’s possible.
Ok while I agree with you people that security will be an issue, I don’t believe it’s completely impossible for him to show. Honestly, he could just probably show up unannounced and FIRST will let him speak. I mean he is the president after all. Also, last time I checked, no one at FIRST has a burning desire to bring any firearms to the Georgia Dome for a robotics competition. He could just show up, his security lock down the Dome, and then leave. No one would expect anything, so there would be no risk of random assassins bringing snipers to the event.
It is nowhere near that situation. Obama did not just show up unannounced at the game. The security to get in the arena there would definitely have been turned up a bit. At the Championships, people can come and go as they please, definitely too much of a security risk. While it would be nice to see Obama in Atlanta, it would probably be safer (for him) and more efficient (for the event) if it was just something like a pre-recorded video.
I don’t know. Personally, I don’t think he belongs there. He should be writing laws and negotiating with other countries. FIRST is very important to me and to many others, but it really is not the most important thing for this country. Let Obama fix the economy, then he can worry about robotics. Afterall, with engineering outlook, that would be doing us all a huge favor.
Here is a better idea: Tell Dean Kamen to get Obama. It would be a much easier for one of our greatest inventors of our time to invite a president to an event then it would for a group of students. Yes I agree that if we were a complete legion and everyone in FIRST asked Mr. Obama to join us for atlanta there would be just a good a chance for him to attend, but lets get real for a second. A Webcast would probably be easiest, and a pre-recoreded video would be even easier.
Also, reminder - keep the political stuff at a min.
It may be a slight inconvience getting into the Dome however i think its something that can be done. It wouldnt take to long to be searched headed into the arena the normal way, as well as, the tunnel could easily be searched and controlled. It would make a pretty big statement to the first community if the President of the United States made it to the Championship.
