[Brandon Holley]

Coming from a kid who started as a scout, you have to understand that not every scout is the same as you.

Whoever mentioned the "3 gears" thing...think about that from THAT kids perspective. He's told he has an important job to do...he is to go out adn collect information on all the teams that are at this regional, and this information is going to be used to form strategies. They tell him, go out and ask teams these exact questions on this sheet and write down their answers.

To the kid that wrote the scout sheet "gears" makes sense...its a term used all the time to name the "speeds" of cars and other things. To the kid reading it, he may not know what it means...to you, you hear "gear" and think of the spurred tooth friend found in 99% of drivetrains and offer your response of 3 per side. Who is at fault in this situation??? No one, your as much to blame/not blame as the kid who is writing down the information, and the kid who wrote the scout sheet.

Please be understanding of the kids that come down to ask your questions. They may not be as passionate about scouting, or even robotics as you are, but if they seriously dont know what somethign on their own scout sheet means, than explain it to them. Maybe them seeing they can actually learn a lot will spark that passion. It can be very intimidating to join a club where it appears everyone around you has an abundant amount of information about robots. Some kids may shy away because they feel they can never reach that level.

Respect the scouts, respect each other, and most of all help them learn, and I bet you may learn something yourself...