My team has a great safety program and I am taking it over, I would really like to see other teams safety programs so that I can maximize the safety of the pits and our shop. I’m also kind of curious how much authority does your safety captain have.
If you are doing something unsafe the safety captain tells you to stop and if you continue being unsafe you get reported to a mentor who then makes you go home or doesn’t let you work on the robot. The safety captain also does a safety presentation and makes a safety quiz you have to pass at the beginning of the year.
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Our team does the usual safety stuff like having to get 100% on all safety tests, along with practicals for the shop equipment. We also always wear safety glasses and keep a first aid kit out during builds. I have also started a new mental health safety program in addition to out off season safety presentations. I believe that mental health safety is very important in the FIRST community so I’m happy to share information any team that asks. With authority, we don’t have a lot, but for example, if anyone ever gets injured in anyway (even a little cut) they are supposed to come to one of the safety team to make sure it’s recorded and taken care of accordingly. Other than that, we just tell people off if there being unsafe.
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As a safety captain I agree
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I feel like authority isn’t really the largest issue. The captain can say all they want and write as much as they can, but at the end of the day what really matters is if team members make the decision on their own to be safe. I think captains should make safety and safety programs a positive experience that make team members want to be safe without having someone need to tell them.
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A lot of people dislike safety captains because they find them “pointless” or “annoying”, or they think “I already know this stuff, I dont need a safety captain”. To be a good safety captain, you need to break those stereotypes and prove to the team why what you do is important.
Safety demonstrations of common build space injuries is my recommendation. Show why you should always clamp down a piece of metal you put in a drill press before the newbies learn the hard way. Show what happens if you accidently put your finger into the grinding wheel (use like a hotdog or something, not an actual finger). Demonstrations tend get much better results than a simple safety quiz. Also, hotdogs make great finger analogs, and you can replace them (unlike fingers).
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Safety captains have as much authority as you give them. If you treat their position like a big joke then that’s what you’ll get. If you treat it seriously and make that part of your team culture then they become an important part of the team.
Have them do actual useful things rather than the stereotype of playing “safety police”. Have an actual binder of your team safety policies (quick - what will you do if you discover a student is missing?) Have them be responsible for researching and knowing the best practices for personal safety, occupational safety, first aid, etc. Are they first and and CPR trained? Does your team keep medical incident reports, and does your safety captain know how to fill them out? Do you inventory your first aid kit and do they know how to restock it?
As part of our lettering program, students do a “project”, along with a short write-up about it. Projects are varied, depending on team need and student progression through the program (a 4th year team member is expected to have something more significant than a rookie, for example). They may be something small and self-contained, or something season-long. They’re supposed to focus on personal leadership and growth. Anyways, our Safety Captain this year used that position as her project (which was completely appropriate!), and here’s a snippet from her write-up:
My lettering submission this year is my safety program. I worked this year to develop numerous safety initiatives to benefit the team’s overall engagement in safety. My first safety initiative was a collection of short presentations on varying topics of safety, AKA Safety Snippets. Not only did my teammates enjoy the memes and humorous images included in these presentations, but one team member expressed an increase in information retention when it came time for the safety quiz as a result of this new initiative. My second new initiative was Safety Star of the Week, a program where I awarded students who made an effort to apply safety concepts they’d learned to the workspace. I would award those select students a gold star and have them tell the team why they were awarded the star that week. Finally, they would get their picture on a wall of fame, a visual reminder to everyone what previous stars did to earn the award. This year, Personal Safety was another huge initiative. I researched different strategies of communication, compiled my information into a presentation, and presented it to the team at our Fall Retreat. We had a very productive discussion and settled on two new code words to use in case of a personal emergency. This discussion also led the team to design and purchase new safety wristbands for competition. I crafted new competition-prep presentations and quizzes. I also took on smaller tasks around the shop like restocking the First Aid Kit and Battery Spill Kit, making new injury logs, placing updated team contact information in the Safety Binder in case of emergency, and obtaining the team a new, fully charged fire extinguisher. I believe that the safety program was incredibly successful this year. Not only did we win several safety awards throughout the season (2 Pit Safety Awards, 3 Safety Star of the Day Pins, 1 Runner-Up Safety Award, 1 UL Industrial Safety Award), but I saw a definite increase in engagement from team members. Safety is less stigmatized than I’ve seen in previous years (people don’t see it as a punishment or a pointless restriction). Students feel comfortable asking me questions about safety (“Do I have to clamp this down? Do I have to log this cut?”) which I see as a huge victory. I also saw a large increase in documentation in the Injury Log this year (three entries last year, three pages this year). I believe this is due to my constant safety reminders during meetings and my incessant encouragement to log injuries.
You can see a few key concepts from her program:
- creative ways to keep students engaged with the safety topics as they learned
- research into new areas of safety and development of a program to address them within the team
- recognition of students that are being safe
- maintenance/improvement of prior safety efforts
Prior to this year, the team won safety runner up once, I believe, and that was it - no other safety recognition at events. She clearly exceeded all expectations with her efforts 
Without knowing what currently exists on the OPs team for a safety program, all I can say is keep those concepts in mind! Get everyone engaged with being safe in whatever way you can - a safety program isn’t just about telling people to be safe, it’s about educating them and leading them towards being safe without being told!
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