[bmusser]

Thanks Rich for refocusing the previous thread. Our collaborative situation this year was purely a decision to help two teams that would have folded otherwise. We have a lost a lot of mentors over the years and are left with a handful of mentors that can help on a daily basis. The decision to build three identical robots was one made purely on our available resources. We would have loved to support three distinctly different designs, but were unable to do so.

Personally, I did not know what to expect out of this collaboration at first. I will tell you that it has been one of the most rewarding experiences that I have had in my 9 years with FIRST (besides meeting my wife). I saw students from completely different backgrounds work together where they maybe would not have had the chance otherwise. Pretty much all team members selflessly helped on all the robots. I am very proud of everyone on all three teams and I hope it was as rewarding experience for all of you as it was for me. I wish all the FIRST teams good luck this year. We will see you at GLR, Detroit, and West Michigan.