after talking with my team and other CD members, we have decided that a scouting database might not be the thing we wanted to do. Every year there is lots of congestion in the pits area. A good amount of this congestion is scouts from teams who go out to get information. We were thinking we could eliminate this by only sending out about 10-15 very qualified, veteran team member scouts from any team who wanted to lend a hand. Each person would be assigned different teams randomly to g and find information about. But, after hearing the feedback in this forum, i think it would be a better idea to still do the scouting data base, but have it accesible from our spot in the stands.
What we are trying to do this year is set up a "help facility". One of the main purposes of FIRST is to teach kids about being good sportsman. I mean heck, they even give an award to motivate people to help each other out. Every year at regionals though, we see strugling teams who are working very hard to get their bot working, but just don't have the expertise to figure it out. Then we also see kids in the pits with their legs up relaxing, because their bot is fine and they have nothing to do. What we would like to do (and were planning to do) was set up sort of a list or databse of teams who need help and what teams are willing to give help. This would be catorgerized into different areas (such as: pneumatics, drive train, programming). Now if any team needs help, they can come over to the 195 and sign in a request. If there was anyone like stated before who was just sitting around, they could also come to our table, check out who they can help, and then effectively and efficiently go help them. We think this would help teams out alot, because there have been many occasions where we needed a certain part, or some help in an area that we didnt have. Then, we would have to waste like a half hour going from team to team trying to find someone to help us out. If you are interested in being a part of this help network, please respond in this thread
Help Facility
I think this idea will be loved by some, hated by others. Please tell me what you think of it, and possibly ideas on how to improve it!