Safety FIRST

[robochick1319]

Attention all safety captains:

I feel that safety captains and those who work with the safety program are often ignored or left out of the chief delphi chitter chatter.

So here is a thread to talk about the successes and the pitfalls of being a safety captain!

I'd like to know what kind of success y'all have had and what kind of problems have faced. This is the third year for Safety FIRST and I'm interested to see what progress we've made!

How have y'all made safety "cool" instead of "dorky"?

So, Safety Captains unite!

[MattLi]

I'm not a saftey captain because I'm not "allowed" in the pits. But I have been known to be the saftey glasses Nazi. I find that putting up "wear your saftey glasses" posters really helps people remember their saftey glasses. What other things fall under the "saftey catagory?

[Mister_Juggles]

Our team doesn't technically have *A* safety captain... we just give the button to whoever is on pit duty during competitions, it's expected that everyone is safe and watching each other. Last year, at...I think it was at the VCU regional... there was a guy in a robot suit (dont remember which team ) dancing by the safety glasses table, holding a sign that said "Wear your Goggles," and would point to the table whenever someone tried to enter the pits without them. I stood next to him, helping the cause, and juggled for about an hourish, pointing people to his sign, neither of us ever saying anything. We helped a good 20-30 people that could have lost an eye! Or even both!

[Darkforces]

well our team doesn't have a safety captain any more, we thought he did such a great job that we promoted him to safety admiral.

[Gabe]

I am the safety captain for my team, which is a really easy position because all you have to do is always use your common sense. I insist on members having safety glasses on at all times while working on the robot or with tools, because I have had many accidents where I was either lucky or actually wearing them.
Sometimes I think that teams simply assign people randomly for safety captain, which is totally wrong. Safety captain should be the one most familiar with the proper use and handling of tools, so that they can recognize unsafe behavior. I like tools, I know how to use many different kinds of tools, but I don't like it when someone uses a tool in the wrong way.

[Ansem Retort]

ah, common sense, not as common as one might think...
I'm the safety captain for my newbie team this year. We'll see how well I did when we all come home with all our limbs still attached ^_^.

Our safety plans will include stickers, poster, checklists...we aren't taking the chance of being disqualified '-.-. And these plans will hopefully involve Furbies...though that particular plan isn't really shaping up too well.

[Justin M.]

Our team has been really unlucky in the past, people lost fingers, and somebody got aluminum dust in their eye when cutting with a jigsaw.

Those events in itself is our safety mentors...I wont even look at a piece of metal without safety glasses. The school has some crappy ones, so I went out and got my own nice pair at lowes.

[Otaku]

Last year our saftey captain attended the San Jose Regional in full tactical gear and a gas mask...



He's the one on your right

As for this year, we have no idea who it'll be. Probably somebody completely random.

[Ansem Retort]

I think it would also be the best thing ever if one of us came in full stormtrooper armor. How's that for protection?!

[BlondeNerd]

I'm safety captain for my team. They picked me randomly at competition last year 'cause I was a rookie and no one else wanted to do it. Now, everyone calls me "Safety Kate." I sometimes threaten to wack people with robot parts if they don't wear their safety glasses. I don't know if the threats work, so much as the reminder. Oh, well. I enjoy being Safety Captain

[Ansem Retort]

Originally Posted by BlondeNerd

I'm safety captain for my team. They picked me randomly at competition last year 'cause I was a rookie and no one else wanted to do it. Now, everyone calls me "Safety Kate." I sometimes threaten to wack people with robot parts if they don't wear their safety glasses. I don't know if the threats work, so much as the reminder. Oh, well. I enjoy being Safety Captain

How ironic: you tell them to be safe, then potentially whack them upside the head .

[robochick1319]

Well, has anyone had any major successes they'd like to brag about?

This is the third year for safety and I was wondering what improvements or rewards people have made or added to their safety programs?

[Carol]

Safety is more than just wearing glasses. Do you wear gloves while handling sharp metal? When you lift something heavy, such as the robot, do you use proper lifting techniques? Are you using the proper guards and safety devices on the machines? Do you limit horseplay in the work area? Does everyone take off jewelry and tie back long hair? Do you have a first aid kit handy? Do you know who to call in case of an incident?

A safety captain can and should enforce all these practices. Actually, everyone should be looking out for everyone else. fingers and eyes don't grow back. And it can take only one incident to get you kicked out of your facility.
l

[synth3tk]

Team 964 is 964's Safety Captain. Actually, we don't have one as far as I know, but we've got people doing nothing right now so I'm going to bring it up during tomorrow's meeting. I heard last year our captain was pretty efficient in enforcing safety rules.

[KathieK]

Safety Captains are a FIRST-recommended position as per section 2.5.2 of the Manual. All teams should have one.