Time for a Scouting Award--Eagle Scout???

[Citrus Dad]

FIRST offers a number of awards, and sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between some of them. Yet there's no recognition of innovative or outstanding scouting approaches. Yes, good scouting usually leads to wins, but so does good engineering design. And scouting often requires STEM skills.

FIRST already seems to ignore scouting, making the task of acquiring data more difficult than needed and not providing set aside seating for scouts who have to peer around pom poms and giant numbers. It's time for FIRST to acknowledge that scouting can be an important part of team success--certainly more than team spirit. In fact many of the skills used for scouting are just as applicable in the real world as engineering (surprise!).

So FIRST, what do say??