JOIN US! As a part of our outreach efforts this year, we’ve put together a packet of lobbying materials to help our legislators continue to support FIRST as a program. Lobbying materials are commonly used to influence governmental figures to vote in favor of bills that support or fund a particular program. If your robotics team is interested in completing an easy outreach opportunity, then keep reading!
Thank you so much for becoming a part of our lobbying initiative! To help your team get started with this, we’ve attached some materials below. First, we included a template for your team to base your own lobbying pamphlet on, and attached it in a word document! This should help you be able to create a more customized version of the materials. You can refer to our example pamphlet (also linked) for ideas. We included information about what FIRST is, and how it’s had a direct impact on our team and community.
Click this to download your pamphlet template
Click this to download our example pamphlet
Once you’ve filled out the template, see the list of possible recipients we’ve compiled. The specific people will be different in every state, and we suggest also sending a copy of your pamphlet to a FIRST official from your state (such as the Director of Development & Community Relations), so they can have access to it if needed.
An email outline is also provided below so that you can personalize and send to each of your desired recipients. The final step is to send us your customized materials!
Recipient List:
- Your State Superintendent of Education (not all states have one)
- State Senators
- U.S. Senators
- State House of Representatives
- U.S. House of Representatives
- Your team’s district representatives (house and senate)
- People who work in education
- Legislative committee that works on education in both senate and house.
Following is an outline of the letter you should send along with your team pamphlet:
Email Outline:
To (insert name),
I’m writing to thank you for your dedication to supporting STEM education for students. In past years, the legislature’s generous funding towards FIRST Robotics has allowed my team, and many others like it, to exercise our passions for engineering, computer science, and business management. FIRST is a phenomenal worldwide program that allows students to design, build, and program a robot to compete in unique games each year. FIRST (State), our state’s chapter of the program, is lucky to have such stalwart supporters.
We’ve worked with FTC team Chickenados from Seattle, WA to reach a wide range of teams. FIRST is an amazing program that provides such a great creative and skill learning outlet that everyone should have access to. We have attached an informational pamphlet regarding our team and what FIRST means to us and our team. I hope these materials encourage you to maintain your generous support of STEM and robotics. Once again, thank you for the work you’ve done. I’ve attached our pamphlet, and please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
(Person)
(Job on Team, Team Name, Team Number)
Again, if you’ve completed these steps and sent your own lobby emails, please CC us or send us your customized materials. We would love to see your twist on this project and receive any feedback you have.
If any of the above instructions are at all confusing, or if any of the materials don’t come through properly, please don’t hesitate to reach out! You can contact us through our Instagram, @chickenadosrobotics, or email us at chickenadosrobotics@gmail.com. Thank you so much for your participation!