My dad is the 'official robotics teacher' at our school.....ever since our team started in 2002, our family has been peripherally influenced by robotics.
In 2008, about a week before ship date, he randomly asked if I wanted to come to the regional as a scout. I believe I made the 5th person on the team that year.....we have a really small school....
I'd never been mechanically inclined in the least, but I do love to organize/talk to people.....I got hooked on FIRST that year. Being the sole scout on the team was insane....
In 2009 I was scouting captain, really was only involved at competition though. I somehow kept notes on all the teams: no laptop that year, all the data was in a big thick notebook--now I wonder how I did it.
2010: our team's best year in a long time. We got a NASA sustaining grant and I <i>was</i> the Chairman's Team...wrote the essays, filmed and edited the video, etc. We had a scouting Team this year, which was epic....two people but we had it under control, with the help of the laptop, and some really late nights.....ever notice how the (serious) scouts work all day, go back to the hotel room, have a team meeting, and then work most of the night to collate the data?
I do my best to dispel the idea that scouts are the people who can't/won't do anything else....my scouts were dedicated hardworking people....all two of us, hehe.
Now I'm headed to Atlanta with another local team, as Team Videographer....amazing what a training in professional video camera use can do.
I think one of the best parts of FIRST is that you don't >have< to be a mechanical genius to be able to help...I had my wrench-turning days, but the biggest way I helped was organization/facilitation/PR.
Go FIRST!