2021 Virtual National Advocacy Conference
What is NAC?
The National Advocacy Conference, or NAC, is run by the Student Association for STEM Advocacy (SASA). The Girls of Steel have participated in the SASA NAC twice before, in June 2017 and June 2018. The NAC has been in existence for eight years, and students have participated from thirty states. This year 25% of congress was involved in the conference and they met with students from 20 states at 150 meetings to hear their proposals.
Before the big day of meetings on June 30th, teams listened to a five-hour debriefing and training on June 19th hosted by SASA. The speakers introduced us to a professional meeting format and the proper lingo to expect during the meetings with our senators and representatives. Our involvement on June 30th entails meeting with representatives from our state regarding a topic expressed in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESSA), Title IV Part A. We advocate for increased support from the government to expand programs that bring opportunities in STEM and exposure to 21st century skills to all, most importantly children from underrepresented communities. The federal government has authorized the proposal for 1.6 billion dollars, but it has only been appropriated for 1.22 billion dollars in Fiscal Year 2021. We participate because our members are interested in being a part of a coalition of STEM advocates who are interested in increasing national funding for high school robotics teams.
NAC@Home/NAC 2021
COVID-19 has influenced some of the aspects of NAC. Sadly, it didn’t allow us to travel to Washington DC, which would have allowed us to make a more significant impact and connection among the congressmen and senators. However, some good came out of the online aspect of the conference. More people on our team were able to participate due to the easy accessibility. Time also increased within the conference and training and planning meetings, which gave us more advocating experience and influence.
Our process/meeting with other teams
Our team started meeting on June 15, where we were introduced to NAC and Title IV Part A. We had two meetings that gave us an introduction prior to the training day on June 19, which was a five hour Zoom meeting that gave an overview of how the meetings worked, a background on Title IV Part A, and basics in the government process and current situations. Albeit really long, this meeting really helped everyone to get a better sense of what we were aiming for during our meetings June 30.
We prepared and assigned talking points about our team, FIRST and its impact, and our ask for increased funding for after school programs. We also had meetings with FRC 2656 Quasics from Gateway High School in Monroeville PA and FTC 13474 Mars Curiosity from the Mars PA Robotics Association in Mars PA. We really enjoyed collaborating with other teams from PA to create a presentation that emphasized the three goals highlighted to us during the training: building relationships, getting legislators excited about FIRST and STEM, and supporting Title IV Part A to bring in more funding for after school programs. After nights practicing just with Girls of Steel and with all three teams, we headed to the big day.
Who we met with on “the big day!”
Dressed in our team uniforms, excited, nervous, and unsure of what the day would look like, we started June 30th preparing for our first meeting, scheduled for 10:00 a.m. with Rep. Mike Kelly’s legislative assistant, Anna McLeaf. However, that meeting got pushed back to 11:00, so we could enjoy another half hour of anticipation before our meeting with Rep. Mike Doyle’s legislative director, Kate Werley. We had met with Rep. Doyle many times in the past, and he has been a great ally to us, always proud and excited to see what we have accomplished. We were also excited to start our day with a familiar personality, though the representative was not available to join the virtual meeting unfortunately. Team 2656 Quasics from Gateway High School presented with us, and we split the script accordingly in order to share our perspectives evenly. Nevertheless, our meeting with Ms. Werley went swimmingly. After some technology glitches, our “presentation” went smoothly, and Ms. Werley was very supportive of our delivery style and organization. She told us that Rep. Doyle has always been a strong advocate for STEM and would absolutely continue to support the legislation we advocated for. We left the meeting with more confidence to deliver successful presentations. Next, we met with Anna McLeaf from Mike Kelly’s office. She, unlike Ms. Werley, was actually unfamiliar with FIRST, so we spent some time explaining the program to her. Girls of Steel was the only team in this presentation. After our presentation, she asked us some questions about our team, specifically the way FRC ran in Girls of Steel. She was really impressed with our success in the past! We invited her and Rep. Kelly to our competitions and practice field in the future, and we hope we are able to share more about our program in-person soon. Sen. Casey’s meeting was next on our agenda. We met with Panini Pandya, staff assistant to the senator. Both of our other partner teams for NAC, Quasics and MARS, presented this time because, as a senator, Sen. Casey represents us all. Ms. Pandya was also familiar with our team and remarked multiple times at how impressive our program is. She recognized the importance of our personal stories and asked for us to reiterate the biggest personal impacts so she could pass them along to the senator. Community and confidence were the most important and relevant themes that the stories highlighted. She gave us some great advice, encouraging us to keep putting pressure on our legislators to make the change that we want to see happen. After saying goodbye to Ms. Pandya, we hopped on to a quick zoom call to take a group picture with Quasics and MARS.
We had a lunch break and prepared for our afternoon meetings at 2:00 and 3:00. At 1:55, we joined the meeting with Rep. Conor Lamb’s legislative assistant, Fiona Flory. She was excited to hear us speak and also had heard of FIRST before. She said that SASA had sent materials earlier on explaining the FIRST program and she had taken a look at them before. We reiterated the big ideas and explained why we were advocating for this bill. Like Rep. Doyle, Ms. Flory said that Rep. Lamb was completely on board with this legislation and will continue to support it in the future. We have met with Rep. Lamb in the past, so we definitely expected this very positive reaction. Finally, our last meeting of the day was with Danny Reeves, Rep. Guy Reschenthaler’s special assistant. He also was unaware of FIRST, but after our presentation it seemed like he understood why we were so passionate about STEM opportunities and the implications it has on the future. He asked us a lot of great questions that we were sure to answer or at least direct in our follow-up email. He concluded the meeting by saying that he would do some research and definitely pass along our stories to the representative. We said goodbye and thus concluded NAC 2021!
Girls of Steel had a very short debriefing session where we just went over our day and planned a future meeting. We were all so thrilled at how the day and our meetings went, and we felt like our presentations made a strong impression on the legislators.
Future plans
Attending the National Advocacy Convention online had its advantages and disadvantages. For example, we didn’t obtain the real connection aspect of NAC when we would have walked into the room with the congressmen. We met online and stifled the real connection that would have been possible. We are not certain what the future may hold, but we know one thing for certain. Girls of Steel will continue advocating for our Congressmen and Senators to fight for full appropriation of the ESSA, Title IV Part A to expand STEM programs and opportunities across the United States. We will also continue to build relationships by inviting all our representatives and senators to our shared robotics practice field space when we are able to meet in person.
