Keeping the Pits Streamlined

[Al Skierkiewicz]

A simple posted schedule of crew time assignments works well. Students are assigned pit, strategy, data collecting, free time or Chairman's booth.

[gorrilla]

My team dosent' usually have this problem(as we dont have many people)

But we give everyone different assignments(scouting,talking to judges/other teams,etc..)

Usually everyone who's not on the drive team is in the stands or walking around the pits looking at other teams/robots/cool stuff......

I think this is because our robots' seem to be unbreakable for some reason(I think this has something to do with us being overweight all the time too) so we dont usually need more than 4 students is the pits anyways(drive team and safety captain)

If its a space problem try reorganizing your pit(worked well for us)

[DNay247]

What 247 does is we have a specific pit crew - composed student-wise of myself, being safety captain and pit crew chief, and the drive tem, which has two more mechanical students, our marketing guy, and one of the programmers. We have two build mentors, and also an electrical mentor. That's eight total, and drive team is usually out being briefed by our head scout, or schmoozing with other teams. Nobody really drops in after a match, they stay occupied in scouting. I
f I see another student just hanging around our pit that isn't supposed to be there, I can just throw them out.

Keeping an organized pit is a good idea. Another pit tip - double your toolboxes as seats!
Also, we have a workbench that we replace the table they give us with. My first job on Thursday was to get that table out of there and somewhere more useful for the judges, refs, etc.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by NorviewsVeteran

I noticed about six or seven of my teammates hanging around 'supervising' in the aisle at competition, so I took a moment to ask each one, "what are you doing?" and if they answered 'nothing' or mumbled some BS answer, I sent them to the stands.

We just make the pits so unpleasant, nobody "wants' to be there

Seriously: We have taught our students to ask that question of themselves: If you are not actively repairing something, then go somewhere else.

[Tom Line]

Originally Posted by Schnabel

We TechnoKats set a schedule every year and if you aren't on the schedule, then you are in the stands. The scouting group has a similar schedule as to make sure we have scouts at all times, yet no one person scouts all day.



Actually I disagree with this and every year i try my best to kick all TechnoKats in front of the pit out if they aren't susposed to be there. Imagine this, you are at BoilerMaker regional, and your team, and every other team has 3-5 people standing outside of the pit. Since BMR has very limited space in the aisles, there is no room to get through. This is bad if you are running late and need to get the robot through, or if the people outside of the pits are messing around and they block judges. If I had one thing to ask of all teams, please don't stand in front of your pit.

I agree 1000%. DO NOT STAND in front of your pits! You are a safety hazard to put it politely, and a majorly annoying distraction to put it bluntly. You're a hinderance if any judges come by, and you'll slow down the process of strategizing with other teams drive-teams.

We assign 5 team members to the pits. 2 mechanical, 2 electrical, and one 'whoever'. I am never afraid to send team members away if there are too many. They know that if I see them standing with nothing to do that it's pretty likely they're going to get something to do (and generally it won't be much fun) - things like going to set up the lunch trailer, or going to relieve someone who's scouting, or going to scout other teams.

Don't be afraid to ask people to leave. The first time you don't and someone gets hurt, you'll feel horrible that you didn't.

Get those extra people out of the pits. They don't belong there.

[Carol]

The roles and expectations on our team are very defined at competition. Every student (and mentor) on our team has an assigned job: pit crew, mobile pit crew, ambassador, awards, safety captain, scouting, with some overlap in jobs (contrary to what it seems, we only have 30-35 students each year).

Pit crew are the main students who should be in the pit, working on the robot, and are selected on basis of their mechanical/electrical/programming skill. The mobile pit crew are available as extra hands in the pit if needed, but their main job is to help out other teams, particular rookie teams, that need help in their pits. (At regionals, especially the early ones, it is surprising how many teams need help. And how many teams that jump in to help them.) Ambassadors are just that - there is always at least one in the pit at all times to talk with visitors and judges. Awards are in charge of selecting and awarding our MOEawards to other teams. Safety captain is obvious. Scouting crew are assigned matches to watch and summarize, so that every match is covered. Everyone (except one ambassador) is expected to be in the stands during our matches. But in between our matches, they all disperse to their assigned jobs. (And at Atlanta we have a schedule to cover the Hall of Fame display as well).

The system is challenging, and takes a bit of organization, but works very well as long as everyone steps up and does their part. We ask a lot of our students but they always live up to our expectations. Every year I'm more proud of what they do.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by ttldomination

It's generally known that our team runs to the pits after a match. The scouts hang around waiting for their next assignment from the scout leader, the builders all rush back to make sure everything still works, the safety captain is almost always there, and everyone wants to talk to the drivers to makes sure that things went well during the match and no major issues came up.

So for me, or anyone else on my team, to tell people on my team to stay in the stands would be unfair. They have a full right to come down and check out the robot, talk to people, get status updates, etc. And it's understandable that right after a match is almost always the worst, but it generally clears out.

If your scouts need new assignments after every match of yours, I think your scouting system needs reworking. When I was on 330, we never had an issue with scouting assignments--you got a set of sheets with teams on them, and those were the teams you scouted in those matches. If you needed to go elsewhere, the sheets went to someone else.

Everyone wants to make sure that nothing came up and everything went well. Great! Send one or two members from the stands and have them report back. They can also inform whoever's up there that so-and-so is needed because his thingamabob is broken and he's the only one who knows how to fix it, or that there's a repair emergency.

Yes, everyone has a full right to do everything you say. However, when everyone exercises that right at the exact same time, it doesn't help you at all. Have a rotation in the pits/stands so that everyone can cycle through the pit area in a more organized fashion.

To the OP:
I would have a minimum of people in the pit. The minimum I'd have would be the drive team, the safety captain, and 1-2 people to talk to the judges/inspectors/other teams. Also have a programmer or two either in the pit or close at hand. Maybe 1-2 other people. Cycle everyone through in a schedule.

[Mr. Pockets]

Our team tried two tricks this year:

1.) At our second two comps we issued the Pit crew, the controls people, and the drive team these placards which said on them PIT CREW. Theoretically you would only be allowed in the pit if you had one of those (we weren't perfect about enforcing it but it was a nice idea.)

2.) We set safety cones around our pit when the robot was there. If you weren't working on the robot or doing something important in the pit you were supposed to stay outside those cones.

[Karibou]

In addition to what Mr. Pockets (Nathan) said, we also kept our team members busy scouting. With barely enough scouts to keep our scouting service up and running, they were kept busy with constant scouting. Not the most ideal way to keep extra teammates out, but it worked.

It also helps when there's nothing to do in the pit. When the robot is working and there's nothing to fix (though we all know that that never happens ), watching matches is definitely more interesting than sitting in the pit doing nothing, so virtually nobody is there. Right after a match, however, our pit does tend to get a bit crowded with the drive team, strategy group, pit crew, and the occasional scout. After we assess whatever problems we may have, the drive and strategy teams usually leave, which leaves about 4 or 5 of us in the pit, which is a good number.

[AdamHeard]

This misconception that the only "glamorous" jobs are ones directly involved with the robot is way off.

For a team to be competitive, x, y and z need to be done, and there has to be someone to do them.

Every job should be charted, mapped out, defined and assigned. Jobs should be given to the most capable and deserving. If you feel you deserved the "superglamorous" X, but got "unimportant" Y, first you are wrong, and second tough luck. Work harder next year to be that deserving kid who gets job X.

No job is unimportant, as it is the culimation of all the little things that lets the driveteam be successful on the field with the robot. If you disagree with your job and think you're above it, then you're being immature. Part of being mature and a team player is willing to take such jobs for the greater good of the team.

Nothing in life should be handed to you, many people make the argument everyone on the team should have a chance at everything on a team. I make a slightly different argument that everyone on the team should have a chance at EARNING anything they want a chance at on the team.

Now, to actually answer the question.

973 explicitly keeps a few pit crew members, all hand picked by no set criteria. We keep the drive team, pit crew, battery man and spokesperson in the pit, with a programmer on call. We try to overlap as many of these roles as possible to reduce bodies in the pit. Everyone else has a defined job, and is expected to do it all times. Since we're currently a small team, everyone is either on pit crew, drive, or scouting. The pit crew is expected to be at the pit at all times (except when we have matches), scouting expected to be scouting the entire time, and the drive team is expected to stay near the pit to be ready for matches and strategy.

[Jared Russell]

It depends on how crowded a particular venue is, but in general we have found that if every student knows their duties, they won't tend to crowd in the pit without reason.

Also, our normal pit display consists of two large pillars (with posters, a computer for videos, a spinning sign, etc.) bridged by vines. In effect this acts as a "gate" into our pit, and sort of naturally keeps folks to the periphery unless actively working on the robot.

We also tend to travel with an appropriately sized crew to each event - everybody who travels with us is going because they are doing something valuable for the team.

[techtiger1]

1251 keeps the pit crew to about 5 students and some mentors, We find this eliminates crowding when trying to work on the robot and maneuver in the pits. Also we have a designated pit boss who is in charge of tools and power organization. Finally, we use schedules much like Al from 111 described earlier in this thread, which is probably the best place to start streamlining.

[Brandon Holley]

For some teams, I think the perception of what the pit is, is what causes a constant crowd to form there.

The pit:
its where the robot is maintained and repaired.
its where judges come to talk to your team.
its where other teams come to strategize with yours.

Any other activity does not NEED to take place in the pit. Your scouts do not need to work out of the pit...neither do most of the other tasks that take place at a competition.

I see teams meeting at the pit to go to lunch, which works, but there are also a thousand other places the team can meet that keep them out of the pit.

The perception of the pit being the center of the team at a competition causes people to flock to it because it is where the "action" is. Making sure the students on your team know that yes the pit is very important, but its not the "meeting place" will help solve the big rushes of people that come flocking after each match.


To keep it regulated throughout the competition, a schedule is a pretty simple way to keep the students organized. Your assigned a time to be in the pit...if its not your time, leave until it is. Thats just the way it has to be to keep it organized and fair to everyone.

[Chris is me]

Something else to consider would be having your scouting captain assigining teams in the stands. For pit recon, you can just have the members meet at the wall next to the "pit map", then point to the teams each person looks at. For stand scouting, you can have people assigned to each starting position on the field and have the scouting captain in charge of rotating people every 5-10 matches. You don't need to be in the pits at all for that, unless the scouting program for data entry is on the programming laptop (it shouldn't be).

[Collin Fultz]

To the original poster:

A lot of good information has been given here. To best sum it up:

1.) Make a plan
2.) Stick to the plan

Step 1 is easy. Step 2 can take somebody being the "bad guy", moving people out of the pits that do not need to be there. For this reason, I recommend the "bad guy" role being filled by a mentor.

Good luck.