[Sunshine]

Originally Posted by Cynette

That implies the need to strive to have positive interactions with students, to give advice, make suggestions, promote safety by having team members learn to evaluate the risks and identify appropriate solutions.

Conversations with the team's Safety Captain on what the team does during the build season, all year round and at competitions to promote safety. The Safety Captain should be able to come away from the conversations with a list of things that the team does well and some suggestions on improvements for the next year.

Mr. Ivey, I like your list! If my team was evaluated that way, we would do well, and the safety culture we try to develop would be reinforced.

Asking for the fire extinguisher. !

I will preface my reply by saying that we won the UL Safety Award in Atlanta 2 years ago. If you check out my signature you will also see that we have been regognized numerious times for our safety program. It's much more than just hollering "robot coming through" (although IMHO is that this is important because of the number of near misses when robots are trying to get to the field)

I love that we are even having this discussion and I for one was delighted at the number of teams that tried to win the award. This tells me that more teams are taking this serious. And that's great because this is a serious matter that no team should take lightly. I believe that in the past, most teams did not take safety education seriuosly. I see that changing.

I too love the list that was started and I have asked our safety captian to share more ideas that we came up with. He is off to a team presentation today with a sponsor but I am sure he will chime in. The one thing that I will say is that safety is a culture and way of life for us. It is not an after thought. We educate students throughout the year on safety knowledge. The students accept and appreciate the info. They have learned that regardless of what they do in life they could loose a job or health if they do not take safety seriously.

We have had GREAT interaction with the safety judges at all competitions. We have learned a great deal from them. They have given advice, made suggestions, promoted safety by having team members learn to evaluate the risks and identify appropriate solutions. All students look to them as an allie. Safety judges have talked to our team's Safety Captain and many other students on what the team does during the build season, all year round and at competitions to promote safety. I agree that the Safety Captain should be able to come away from the conversations with a list of things that the team does well and some suggestions on improvements for the next year. But I also believe that any of your students around the pit should be able to talk inteligently about your safety program (not just the safety captian)

I had a very good conversation with a safety judge a few years ago. He explained that they are looking for teams that walk the walk not just talk the talk. They realize that that many teams download info off the internet to make themselves look good. They want to see teams that are living and doing safety throughout the year.

I for one wish that every team had a fire extinguiser, eye wash station and first aid kit. And I'd like to see all students having knowldge how to use this equipment. We all know that there are risks involved when we are around the robots and this can not be taken lightly.

Conratulations to the team winning the UL Safety Award! Well deserved. We can learn from you and we will.