As the final crunch arrives, and people are working hard to get their robots ready, I think everyone, especially mentors, pauses for a moment to consider shop safety. None of what we do in FIRST matters much if someone gets hurt. Please consider the following:

Tired people make mistakes. Some of our people drive for over an hour to get home from our shop. Send them home if they are obviously tired.

People get sloppy when trying to get the arm, drive train and program all working at the same time. Limit the number of people working on the robot so they don't trip over each other, or turn on the robot when fingers are inside transmissions.

Also make sure you eliminate trip hazards such as trash and power cords all over the floor.

Large piles of oil soaked aluminum and steel shavings in a cardboard box sitting next to a sparking bench grinder is not a good thing. Steel trash cans,
keep aluminum and steel shavings separate, and clean the shop at least once a day. In our shop, every so often we have "a stop everything and put all tools away drill" for 15 minute periods.

Where are your fire extinguisher and your FIRST Aid kit?

Is there adult supervision at all times?

Can you summon emergency assistance if there was an emergency?

And last but not least is everyone using tools properly trained and equipped?

Please, please be safe this year.

Thanks for reading and considering this.