Associate scouts work like this. There are like interns. They are usually high school coaches, college coaches, travel team coaches, baseball instructors or someone who sees alot of high school or college baseball games.
Some area scouts can have 50 associate scouts working for them. Some teams have no associate scouts.
An associate scout if they see a player they think is a potential prospect. They get a players info card on that player and then submit it to the area scout.
If that team later drafts and signs that player . The associate scout get a fee $100-200, and additional money if they reach Double A $500, then Triple A $750, and more if they reach the majors $1,000.
Associate scout can be valuable as far as screening players. The area scout heres so and so school got a pitcher that throws 90 plus. Associate scout goes and sees him and then tells the area scout if he needs to see him or not. This saves the area scout alot of waste time.