Okay, I get it. Scouting sucks. Who wouldn't rather just watch the matches or play Ultimate Frisbee? Sometimes it's even questioned whether the drive team uses the information that we gather. Which means that we need to change how we run scouting.
1. How do we make sure people stick around to scout? Rewards? Food? Can we get money out of the team budget dedicated to scouting?
2. How can we make information gathered by scouts easily interpreted by drive team members so that they are ready for alliance selection as soon as Quals are over? (Software)
3. How do we assign people to their respective scouting times?
4. Should there be a minimum number of hours required instead? Then when you complete those hours you're all set for the season? (NHS-ish)
Excellent questions!
2 things:
1- To try and make scouts stick around, someone suggested a sort of minigame included in the scouting android app that can be played in between matches. Thoughts?
2- To make the scouting info available to the drive team as soon as quals are over, we need to at the very least have two master laptops that are each updated periodically. One of them stays in the stands close to the scouting laptops, and the other stays in the pit for the drive team. Since we'll have 3 people managing scouting this year (me Dan and Megan), i think this can easily be done. All that needs to happen is, first all of the laptop forms are transferred to the master laptop that stays in the stands close to all the scouting laptops. Then, since this master laptop has all of the new files in the same place, all we need to do is put all these files in a thumb drive and run down to the pits to update the other laptop.
This means the laptop in the stands doesn't need to be that powerful or even have Tableau installed, though that would be nice. The powerful that will be doing the graphics from the database will be the laptop down in the pits. This probably means some form of training for scouts to learn how to use Tableau. As long as I pre-build the graphics, all the drive team would need to do is open up tableau and put in the password for the database.
I know the mentors discussed before kickoff that there will be 2 tests to see if members qualify to attend post-season events. Can we make scouting a certain number of hours (exceptions to Safety Captain, drive team, mechanical leads etc.) as a requirement in consideration?
I'm thinking snacks, gum/candy, drinks, and other things to munch on during scouting. These should be reserved only for scouters and when they are sitting with a laptop, not if they're just passing through.
Rewards for excellent scouting???
Maybe some cushions or comfy pillows? I want people to WANT to be there.
I also talked to Dan and Lucas about this, but how will we organize groups for scouting?
Do we make it like a sign up Genius?
Do we assign people who usually hang out together to scout together?
Pro: People will be more likely to stay in their shift if they have their friends with them
Con: Will they get distracted by each other/produce poor scouting results?
PRE SCOUTING:
Do we do it on load in day?
I support making scouting time/number of forms some sort of requirement to go to comps. It'll be an incentive to scout, and an incentive to actually put your name on the form (nearly no one did that last year). However, I can see people scouting under other names to fill in for others, like a friend thing. How do we avoid that? Do make each scout have a password? Even that wouldn't prevent this from happening. Should this even be a concern?
I also completely agree with rewards for good scouting. I'll make people want to scout :) But, we will have to determine what distinguishes a good scout from another. The comments section may not be enough, as there may not be enough time to write comments in. Comparing one form to all other forms doesn't tell us much either, since teams can have good/bad matches. I can see the comments section determining good scouting for prescouting though.
As for grouping people for scouting, i think a middle way would be for them to tell us who they'd like to scout with (google forms?) and we organize the groups.
Lastly, if we prescout on load in, we get it out of the way and start the next day relaxed for quals. Any teams that weren't there or couldnt answer on load in we can prescout before quals.
For the friend thing, I'd say it doesn't matter who scouts as long as all the matches are scouted. Chances are we'll know who's skimping on their scouting.
Can we do something like:
- rewarding those who do more than the minimum with something cool. Maybe it's a prize? Keep in mind its not just about quantity, but also about quality.
- special recognition for being on the scouting team. Maybe something special on their Steamworks outfit this year.
- keep the scouting unit together for all competitions - so it's not haphazardly assembled. This can be hard since some students won't make it to all events but making it a group experience instead of a chore makes it seem as a valued part of the day.
- The scout group get free lunch at events? They eat together, they are family?