Best Ways To Scout

[Rich Kressly]

Asking this question is a LOT like asking, "What's the best robot design?"

I think it's more about meeting your team's needs and fitting the parameters and goals under which you operate. Once you have defined what your available resources (human and otherwise) will be at an event, have decided whether your team is best served by a high-tech, low-tech, or combination approach, and you decide whether your scouting effort will be single- or multiple-team, THEN you're ready to sit down and develop the detailed system that works for your team.

Developing/choosing the system BEFORE you consider parameters, goals, etc makes no sense to me because I never want to find out after the fact that it was "too much paper, too few people." Not that any system never needs analysis or improvements after the fact, but asking yourselves the right questions before investing deeply in any system should help a team prevent any huge mismatches that lead to poor outcomes.

.02 for what it's worth.