[Dinger]

Going off of what my teammate mike (themagic8ball) was saying, it does take some work to get scouts enthused. i was partially in charge of scouting for our team this year, and i ran into some problems that people have mentioned.

one of the ways to keep scouts enthused is to use scouting as an award. for our pit scouting, that was an excuse to get out of the stands, and look around the pits. so, only those who had proved themselves scouting matches got to go to pit scouting. this ensured that we didnt have people who didnt care wandering around the pits makeing our team look bad.
also, really emphasize the importance of scouting. i think a thanks to the scouters was mentioned durring every little pep talk our team had. before our first regional we explained to everyone who was new to the team, or scouting for the first time that we consider our scouting system a huge leg up on other teams and that its essential to our strategy. in sum, make the scouts know that they are important. someone who feels important will do a better job than someone who doesnt.
we had to pull one member off of scouting duty for awhile because they werent taking it seriously. this was a serious mark of shame and the whole team knew it. scouting was a privilage, although a work intensive one, we showed that if you dont care, we dont want you.

also give the scouts structure. our scouters sat in one area when the scouted and they enter information onto standardized sheets. this keep them focused and if they had a game question there were 7 other people around who they could ask.

breaks are important too, to prevent scout burnout. we had 4 scout teams at buckeye who rotated. each team was run by a scouting lead who would check the scouting forms to make sure that everything was filled out and who would also fill in if one of the scouters needed a break.

most importantly, keep scouting fun, and keep scouting cool. if its not someones turn to scout, let them do whatever they want as long as they are back in time to scout thier matches. if someone is doing an awesome job at scouting give them a public shout-out. if someones lagging behind, tell them waht they need to do better and emphasize that they are needed. everyone loves to be needed.