[nathan_hui]

We have a safety officer present in the shop at all times, it's not necessarily the same person, but it's someone the mentors trust to be safe. For us, any safety violation has draconian consequences, only because if the safety violation goes unchecked, people get hurt, and teams have disappeared for that.

Our team uses a shared set of safety glasses, but our members are allowed to bring and use their own personal ones. Some of our team have personalized a couple glasses for themselves, but it's only with a nametag on the bridge. The model we use is the Jackson Nemesis safety glasses (a donation from LMC). Problem is, they're quite expensive on their own.

Members are started on hand tools in their first year, and all work is supervised by a veteran member. We're at the point where in order to be considered veteran, one needs to pass a series of written and practical skills/safety tests, which are pass/fail. Members only start on machines under the close eye of a mentor, and only members personally cleared by our two head mentors are permitted to use the basic machines. Advanced machines (mill, lathe) are off-limits to all those who are personally cleared by our machinist mentor or head mentor, and under close supervision until otherwise noted.

One thing I do point out with our team is that the kind of punishments associated with safety violations are severe. While we can't kick people off the team, safety violations on the exams are automatic fails, and in general operations are a chain of public humiliations. It does the job - everyone catches everyone. As a wise man once said, "Safety is the job of everyone". Some of our mentors have at times threatened to shut down portions of the shop in response to safety violations.