[Aren Siekmeier]

At North Star they have been sticklers about weighing withholding allowances if they have any reason to believe its over (perhaps because of the number of posts here in the first day of the thread). One thing that really bit a lot of us is bumpers. We somehow totally overlooked that they weren't except from the 30 lbs (R33), so we didn't bag them with the robot. Several teams were rebuilding some if not all of their bumpers today.

Now don't get me wrong, I think it's very important that we all stay within the rules on this one. It is, after all, a rule. However, I am very strongly of the opinion that it needs to change. It seems to me that not exempting the bumpers severely penalizes teams going to bag and tag events. Unless they can fit them in their withholding allowance (unlikely, with 2 sets weighing 20-30 lbs), they must bag them, which is really not very convenient. You can only put one set on the robot at a time, which still complicates getting the bagged robot through doorways, and the loose bumpers need to be secured.

And it just makes sense that they shouldn't be included in the withholding allowance. They are not included in robot weight, and are an incredibly standard item by definition, let alone a required one. And they are hardly a functional part of a robot. What edge is attained by completing these after ship day (which we didn't do, but obviously that's what the rule is after).

I'm probably just feeling this way because we had to rebuild two of ours and witnessed first hand a team spending a good chunk of the day rebuilding most of theirs. Of course, this is because of a rules oversight by us, not because of the rule itself.