Maine

In Maine, our goal is to secure ongoing state funding for establishing and maintaining programs for hands-on STEM experiences in the K-12 population across the state. By uniting teams under a common cause, we aim to raise awareness about the invaluable impact of robotics and other STEM programs upon students' career choices and opportunities, to help meet current and expanding technical workforce demands.

Advocacy Day on May 16th

Step 1: Training

In advocacy, the first step is learning the ropes. You can't make a difference in the system if you don't know how it works. Training is the toolkit that gives advocates the skills and know-how to speak up effectively, connect with others, and actually bring about positive changes. It's the starting point that lets people not just understand advocacy but actively take part in it.

Introduction

Presented by: Joseph Niski

Welcome to advocacy and why we are here

Advocacy 101

Presented by: Steve Hyer

Learn about what advocacy is, how to get started, and how to build relationships.

Download Presentation [PPT] [PDF]

Effective Meetings

Presented by: Steve Hyer

Learn how to prepare for your meeting, do's and don'ts of meetings, logistics, and following up afterwards.

Download Presentation [PPT] [PDF]

The presentation has great information. Steve's talk expands on the presentation with excellent examples and explanations to give richer meaning to the slides. If you only watch one video, watch this one!

Summary:

Steve offers advice on avoiding distraction from purpose, staying organized, coming across as Passionate, Polished, and Professional.
Reminder: Advocacy, foremost, is about building relationships.
Learn all you can about them
1. Do they have kids at your local schools?
2. What committees are they on?
3. What is their Professional training/interest/employment?
4. What legislation have they introduced?
Make a "leave behind" - one-pager on Self, team, why robotics is important (Editor's note: the Factsheet can be helpful here, but add personal/team impact. Later on, Steve suggests making up a business card with name, team, contact info.)
Goals: build a relationship, make them a fan of robotics, make an optional Ask.
There are good rules in slides for:
1. Managing in person meetings, especially with a time limit.
  - Be early
  - Dress and speak professionally - smooth hand-offs between presenters - don't contradict one another
  - Take notes
  - Practice
  - Stay on topic
  - Don’t answer questions you don’t know answers to: "I can get back to you on that."
  - Share your passion
  - Make team business cards, and ask for one in return.
2. Virtual meetings
  - Less desirable, but better than none.
  - Keep backgrounds clean, professional, and not distracting.
  - Have a facilitator who will start the meeting promptly when the legislator joins (to not waste time) and keep it moving forward smoothly.
  - One person per camera (not all in one room) and have camera off if you are not a designated speaker.
  - Have a predetermined order of introduction, since you aren’t in the same room, and so can't just go based on seating order, so things keep moving smoothly.
  - Have a few slides to support, but this is about the conversation, not a presentation.
    1. Who you (collectively) are
    2. Impact of Robotics Program
    3. What other states have done
    4. Your Ask

Step 2: Live Panel Discussion

On December 2nd, 2023 we held a live event where we invited former students from Michigan, Minisota, and Massachusetts to talk about their advocacy efforts. Through this dicussion you can learn key information about what to expect when you meet with your legislators and why it is important that we work together.

Step 3: Schedule Meetings

In Maine we are focusing on the following:

Get your legislators to know about K-12 competition robotics

Events

May 16, 2024

9am - Noon: Hall of Flags
Afternoon: Meet with your elected officials

Register

Finding your legislators

Find My Legislator – Use this page to enter your address and it will give you both your members of the senate and the house.
All Senators
All Representatives

Meetings

The documents below will help you setup meetings and prepare you on what to talk about.

Sample Emails

Feel free to customize these Sample Emails to schedule your meetings with your legislators.

Talking Points

These talking points are useful to review to help give you some ideas of what you can talk about.

Step 4: Materials

You can print out these materials to hand out to your legislators.

Robotics in Maine Impact

The RIM Impact printout shows the value of robotics.

FIRST Teams

The FIRST Teams document shows how teams are found across the state.

Robotics in Maine Events

The RIM Events printout can be used to invited your legislator to events.

The Southern New England Advocacy Conference was created in 2018 to get robotics teams in Southern New England to unleash the potential of advocacy in their state. In 2023 it was expanded to include all of New England and renamed States of New England Advocacy Conference.