Safety Award: What would you like to see?

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by bam-bam

I was enormously confused as to why there were tokens. Why can't we just share stuff? Isn't this one of FIRST's goals? Cooperation between teams?

This sounds like a common confusion. I think I've read posts on several occasions that mistakenly tie the token system into the actual consideration for the safety award. The safety token "program" is a completely separate entity from the judged Safety Award. A team might earn the Safety Award and also do well in the token program, but obtaining the most tokens does not mean you win the Safety Award. This has been the case for us in Atlanta - we've gotten the most safety tokens on several occasions but have never won the Championship Safety Award.

The token award gets you the yellow hardhat pins. Winning the Safety Award gets you the trophy and the oval "Safety FIRST" pins.

3.3.6 Safety Recognition Program

Throughout the competition, the easily recognizable, green-shirted Safety Advisors will continuously tour in pairs to observe activities in the pit, practice field, queue line, and playing fields to observe the safety habits of the teams. This includes observing the uncrating of robots and transporting them between the pit and playing fields. The Safety Advisors will rate safe performance in three key areas:

1.) Safe Behavior
2.) Physical Conditions
3.) The use of Safety Glasses as well as other Personal Protective
Equipment (PPE) as appropriate.

Safety Advisors will use safety tokens to recognize and encourage safe behavior(s) at the competition. Teams will earn tokens for positive safety habits in the above areas.

Teams will receive 10 safety tokens in the event check in packet and should keep 5 of them. They should distribute the other 5, in whatever denomination they wish, to teams worthy of recognition. Teams will return the tokens to the Admin Station for a final count on the last competition day. The 3 teams accruing the most safety tokens will be announced during the Awards Ceremony. They should collect their "safety" award pins at the Pit Admin Station after the ceremony.

Both safety advisors and teams are given safety tokens to hand out. I think the tokens are treated very differently between the two groups:

1. The safety advisors use them for the original purpose - a way for safety advisors to spot-reward teams who demonstrate safe work practices. I don't see any problems here.

2. Often, teams use them in ways that defy the original intent of the program. Some might just give them away without much thought or not give them out at all, but others use them to more creative effect. For instance, one of our safety escorts was actually engaging in written contracts with teams to be their exclusive safety escort in exchange for their safety tokens. I'm not sure if the other teams were mocking him or were serious, but for me personally, this is simultaneously a and a moment. because the student was socializing with numerous other teams and was having a lot of fun doing it. Our team had fun with him over this, as previously, he was not one of our more outgoing and motivated students.

However, I also knew this was not the original intent of the safety token program, so there was a little going on, too. It's not something I lose sleep over - if people treat the token program in a more lighthearted, informal fashion, it's not a bad thing to have around. This system is not a *bad* thing, as long as judges continue to not consider tokens in their Safety Award consideration.

In addition, I feel that more often than not, the recipients of the Safety Award are actually being recognized for genuine demonstrations of safety excellence.

Yearly Safety Escort Endorsement - I do believe safety escorts, or a team person designated to say "robot coming through!" has a place in the pits. The practice is more effective and necessary in some venues than in others. They probably aren't going away unless explicitly prohibited by FIRST. For those of you who can't stand them, yer just going to have to deal with it. What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.

Unnecessary announcement volume of "robot coming through" is a big issue with me, as I've been the victim of it in the past. I've told our safety personnel to use only as much volume as necessary to get the immediate attention of people in front of you, but that doesn't mean they exceed their tolerance band periodically. If you believe any of our people get too loud, politely ask them to tone it down. If they persist, visit our pit and let a mentor know. If you do neither but do persist in posting how much you hate them on these boards, I have zero sympathy for you.

I will say that some other teams were being downright obnoxious with their shouts - they weren't trying to clear a path - they were trying to be morons...and succeeding.

Finally, even though my team has won far more Safety Awards than I'd ever like to see, I've also seen some of the safety advisors put the team and the safety captain in particular through some really pointless and sometimes downright insidious lines of questioning. The Spanish Inquisition would be proud. It appears many other teams have faced similar experiences.

I suppose you're going to have that kind of unfortunate experience every so often with volunteers placed in a position of power and authority over teams. Some inspectors and dare I suggest, referees, act the same way. Not everyone will take to the responsibility the correct way. If genuine reports of that kind of behavior out of safety advisors become too frequent, then I agree that changes need to be made, and FIRST needs to hear about it. Just try not to let the bad actions of a few cloud your judgement of the entire group or the notion of safety recognition at a competition.