[dudefise]

We also had a larger team this year, and had a pit qualifying test. To be in the pit, team members had to pass this test. We put it together to have different sections such as electronics, pneumatics, award interviews, programming, design etc. We then devised a schedule of hour-long shifts based on the scores, balancing each shift with people from each category, and so that people got roughly equal assigned pit times. We had a total of 9 assigned pit crew at any given time - the drive team, a programmer, and 4 people on rotation - although at least two were usually off doing something else. We also assigned a four-man "crash team" of the team's best and fastest in each section, to be called to the pits in the event of a major system failure or at critical times such as during eliminations.

It worked fairly well in terms of organization - people were for the most part in the right place at the right time. One of the pitfalls with this system we encountered, though, was that some of the newer members thought the pits to be boring; they happened to be on a shift where nothing broke and we didn't have any matches scheduled.

In terms of keeping track of members, we all have a list of each person's phone number and make sure each person knows where our pit and stands locations are. The scouting leader makes sure those who should be scouting stay in the stands, while the pit leader makes sure people in the pits are actually there, and makes any necessary personnel adjustments. If unnecessary people appear in the pit, we usually assign them back to scouting (we have a small team so everyone is assigned to either scouting or pit at any given time). If the scouting team doesn't have anything for them, we will usually assign them to more specifically subjective scout certain teams, usually upcoming high-rank opponents or possible alliance partners, and create a complete profile.