D:\trc\ara\Region\safety manifesto2004.wpd
22/11/2004
Objectives
Communications
- Establish e-mail communication through an electronic forum such as a list from a mailman
- Incorporate a e-mail from every single club adviser in the region.
- Establish a private electronic forum for group for discussion
- Establish an electronic public forum( in the form of a chat room?) for all matters to do with safety for any rower in the region
- Develop and promote all aspects of safety on the regional website which should be hosted on a server with an element of interactivity
Promotion and education
- Within six months have a safety seminar/meeting organised geographically by divisions or groups of divisions such as to cover every single club
- Develop a written training manual/questionnaire which contain the key elements of the ARA water safety code and the local navigational requirements into a combination of simple questions and multiple choice questions such as to take about one to two hours to answer. The resultant hard or soft copy of ths will be kept and can serve as the safety adviser's record to be used in evidence to support the answer put into question 6.3 of the ARA safety audit. It is not proposed at any time to consider this compulsory but is suggested as a tool to be used in educating novices and new people to the Tideway or upper reaches of the Thames. The hard copy will be modelled on (but much smaller than) the instructors award manual whereby the candidate and an assessor applies his or her signature to each section, which document serves as evidence of training. This will be exceedingly useful when the inevitable court case eventually hits the rowing fraternity.
- Develop a DVD for issue to coxes and steersman on the Tideway to be given to all crews for Tideway events and all visiting crews on request. This will cover not so much the race, which is covered in an alternative video, but what action should be taken before the outing and during the outing/ race. It will also cover advice for coaches on launch driving when training on the Tideway.
Developing an infrastructure of safety advisers and helpers
- Regional safety adviser is not a one-man task. It is necessary to develop sub-regional groups, probably divisional-based persons willing to effect changes in attitude to safety and to develop safety promotional literature and awareness. To this end I shall actively seek volunteers and promote meetings of divisional representative advisers who can spread the word to all club advisers who, in turn, will be encouraged to communicate with every single active member of his or her club, where possible, by e-mail and, where not, by other means. In this way it is hoped to reach the darkest recesses of recalcitrant veteran rowing, such as is often still met crossing over downstream of Putney Bridge yet still complaining that "you" in the wrong part of the river!
Active monitoring and advising
- It is suggested that this divisional group of volunteers and any others willing actively monitor adherence to the ARA code and particularly the navigation requirements and record their observations, preferably with the use of video cameras with a view informing the captain and safety adviser of the club concerned of the need further to educate their club members in the case, for example, of any gross bad steering. It is emphasised that, unless there is an immediate danger such persons, who are advisers not officers, are not to take the any role of enforcement or policing. We want to be seen as beneficial educators and leave the policing to the club captain and safety adviser to deal with.
Carrots
- Establish prizes in decreasing order of value [from Sponsorship?] for the top 10 clubs based on the safety audit, observation, inspection and independent moderation from outside the region. It is proposed, based on the evidence, to rank clubs in the approximate order in response to a safety audit and for this to be published annually rather like the good schools guide. Great care shall be taken to emphasise that all the clubs on the list are all safe in that they all comply with the necessary minimum standards. Needless to say, any clubs not complying with the standard shall be asked to cease rowing until that minimum standard is reached!
safetyadvisor(at)thames-rrc.org