[nnfuller]

So this is something I have been thinking about for a while now. Our team has never had easily removable bumpers, they have always been the more classic wing nutted on approach. I used to think this was a problem, but at our last regional I had a judge come up to me and say that I should be proud of the way so many students were in the pit working on our robot. At the time I felt guilty because all they were doing was changing our bumpers, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it didn't matter what they were doing. Competitions have a way of making many team members who were vital to the build effort feel as if they don't have a purpose,and once scouting is taken care of and spirit is in the bag, they can feel as if their role is to sit in the stands and cheer, or man the pit and talk to people. I loved walking the robot back to our pit after a match and one of our young builders yells "We're blue for the next match!" next thing you know four team members descend on the robot like flies and are working before the cart even comes to a stop. To me this is a small thing that makes a huge difference. Again, I love the engineering behind all these quick change bumpers, just wanted to share my thoughts.