Another item I'll consider for this poll is what programming language(s) teams use, though it's not really in the original scope, and we've got more questions than I want this to be. That said, keep the ideas coming; I'd rather have a better idea and cut a good idea than keep the good idea because the better one wasn't suggested. I plan to develop the poll to be available to collect either by "pit scouting" (with a grid to collect answers on a bunch of teams), or by "paper form", and probably by "electronic form" online.
My son (
Gixxy) has agreed to develop and host the data collection online to support both regular web site and smart phone entry, leveraging TBA's event data to smooth bulk entry from pit scouting. I want to have the have the questionnaire to him by Dec 18 (beginning of LA Tech's Christmas break) to give him plenty of time to get the web site working. Please have questions posted by 4 Dec, so we will have two weeks to compile, and select the specific questions and adjust the wording as needed. I'd also like to collect some data on how long it takes someone to complete the (paper or verbal) questionnaire. I suspect that if it takes more than 15 minutes, we'll lose a lot of teams. I'll also try to arrange the questionnaire with the most important questions first.
Not sure yet what to do if/when we get multiple entries from the same team. I think it would be really best if we kept all of the data, and used this data to understand the uncertainty in the poll results.