Lack of passion in scouting

[Kims Robot]

Another thought is to find a way to make scouting more fun...

We do both Pit & Match scouting (although echoing others here, match scouting gets more weight than pit... anyone can say they can score 20 tubes in a match, to see them do it is another).

Our pit scouting was developed by one of our mentors who knows labview really well, and he created this really awesome GUI with the help of our strategy/drive team. In a way, it makes scouting fun They have a visual way to add tubes to the rack, they can type in notes on teams, and indicate extra points, penalties etc, all through a computer interface. In the end, they hit submit, and we can pull from a master database all the information about exactly what the team did during the match. (look for this to be released for other teams to use soon - almost done working out kinks).

Pit scouting is a good way for students to see other teams, perhaps they dont know everything about every robot in existance, but I have to echo Ben's thoughts here... help them LEARN. This is not about being the best at everything you do, its about learning. Maybe they dont seem to care because they dont understand, or maybe their passion is animation and they are just trying to help out the team. Who knows... take a minute, and educate instead of getting frustrated.

[Taylor]

A couple thoughts -
1. Remember that as a scout, you are a representative of your team. If a scout comes to my pit and asks how high our ramps go (it's quite obvious we have no intention of having any ramps), I may (mistakenly) assume the rest of that scout's team is as naive as him or her. Serve your team well. Think things through.
2. As a scout, if you see a feature on another team that would work well with your strategy (or vice versa), tell them! Plant the seeds of possible alliances as much as possible.
3. Scout in pairs. That way you have a friend to talk to, someone who may pick up things you may miss, another pair of eyes and ears. If you're very strong on game knowledge, pair yourself up with a weaker teammate. If you don't know very much about the game, grab a knowledgeable partner. You both will benefit from the shared knowledge, as well as any strategies other teams may use.
4. Concentrate on specific robots. If each scout is very smart on 5 or 10 robots, and can explain those 5 or 10 robots very well, it would serve the team better than one scout who knows a little about all robots. This also works well for match scouts - if they only have to concentrate on a couple robots then watching matches become less tedious.
I hope you found these helpful, and I hope 1529's scouts serve as great ambassadors for our team at Purdue.