Suggestion: Safety Sub-Forum

[EricH]

Originally Posted by weaversam8

Safety is one of the most important values of FIRST, and it is becoming an increasingly complicated process to participate in. A Safety Sub-Forum would be helpful to rookies and veterans alike, allowing safety captains to share advice and tips.

Originally Posted by gracieboo

I think this would be a really good idea. Actually at my team's meeting tonight our safety captain was talking about how he was gathering emails of other safety captains to build up a network between them. I suggested to him to get connected with others on Chief Delphi and he said that he has found very little interest or collaboration here. I would like to see this change in the future.

On a more serious note (sorry to all you comedians out there), I want to address a couple of points here.

First, safety isn't all THAT complicated. Half of safety is common sense. Most of the rest is preparation. Very little is what is nicknamed "safety theater" (this would be the flyers, safety handouts of certain varieties, people standing around with signs, and the yelling of ROBOT every time you move the bot). Seriously, a lot of the stuff that the "theater" is about is PPE: the lowest item on the totem pole/last resort as far as safety. My best tip is to focus on eliminating as much PPE as you CAN, while still being safe.

And for the second: On the contrary, we're VERY interested in safety. REAL safety, not theater. It's just that it tends to be addressed on a case-by-case basis, in general--usually in the form of reminders if somebody talks about their unsafe behavior.

[FrankJ]

So we could put "be sure to wear your safety glasses" signs here rather than posting them all over the venue?

Actually I think it would be a good idea.

[GreyingJay]

With regard to safety theater:

(keeping in mind this was my first year as a mentor, so I haven't had time to become tired of it yet)

I like it.

I think the signs are fun and creative. I like that kids are taking time to come up with unique and cute ways of raising safety awareness. Granted, there are some that are over the top, and it is possible to become so fixed on the medium that the message itself gets lost. I think it is also possible to "oversaturate" and see so many messages about safety that you simply tune them out.

But short of that, I like it. I run a woodworking activity at a summer camp and darned if you could get the kids to remember to wear their safety glasses. I'm going to steal a few ideas from FRC culture to try and make it a bit more "fun" at camp too.

As for a forum... I think there are genuine topics we could discuss. We could share shop and safety policies, show off creative posters and signage, talk about contests, videos, debates, etc. that students put together for competitions, ask questions about do's and don'ts. Do YOU let your students use the drill press? Do you need a signed waiver from their parents? What kind of training do you give/get?

And, of course, we could debate the merits of shouting "ROBOT!"