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I'm curious as to how other teams decide who gets to be in the pits when, and how they manage to keep everything and everyone organized so that everyone is accounted for and everyone who wants to gets a chance to work in the pits. In past years, this really hasn't been a problem for us, as we've always had few enough members that all of them can be in our pit without creating havoc. However, this year, because we have more members, we started having some problems
How do other teams solve this problem?
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Typically I would hand pick the students based on performance during the build season and commitment. This year we had sign ups and planned to qualify students. But we ran out of time. So picked a couple full time pit students and 2 floaters. I also have a college alum who is hoping to take over as the Pit Boss after he trains for a few years.
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Do you guys make pit schedules?
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If we have more than 4 then we create a schedule and swap in and out. Typically 4 hour shifts starting on Friday.
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Who gets precedence for signing up (seniority, attendance at meetings, etc)?
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Anybody can sign up.
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Is there a "pit manager" who's there all the time, and makes sure everything is in order?
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Yes! I think that it is important to have a go-to person who is in charge and can make decisions when needed.
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Is this usually a student, or is it better to have a mentor take over?
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This has been myself for our team since 2006. Recently a college alum has been asking to be the Pit Boss and I have been working with him to train, but since some of the students are still his "peers" its still difficult for them to see him as an authority figure. I think its important to be a mentor, they should have the experience to be able to make quick decisions as well as be aware enough to involve all those in the pit in activities and maintain focus.
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What if the robot breaks and it's all freshmen who are scheduled to be in the pits?
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I would schedule all freshman, I would ensure you always have a veteran student or the mentor Pit boss there when the robot comes back from a match.
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Is there a crisis management team that then steps in?
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Typically for us if a critical part fails or we have some other catastrophic failure then a mentor or senior student steps in, if needed. This year at Crossroads our shooter wheel motor shaft sheared due to a poor coupling method. The student who lead the shooter team, who was also on the drive team, stepped in to help make the repair but pulled me in to help him decide how best to quickly repair this.
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What about those that aren't in the pits? How are they accounted for? I ask because we temporarily lost a member of our drive team (me  ) while at the NYC regional (in my defense, I was helping another team pass inspection).
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We have students dedicated to helping other teams as well as any member of the drive team or Pit crew must inform the drive coach or Pit Boss when he or she is leaving for any reason. We had a rookie student drive team member who when the robot came back to the pit, she went back to the stands and we couldn't locate her. She thought that's what she was supposed to do. We failed to let her know that she needed to stay and that she needed to let us know when and where she was going.
The best thing to do is to do what is best for your team and the dynamics of how your team operates.