Online safety briefing defunct already?

[RiverAux]

Well, the Online Safety Briefing and quiz system seems to have fallen out of use a lot quicker than I would have expected.  They put up a briefing in April, but nothing since.   I had sort of assumed (and maybe I read somewhere) that these were going to be available monthly. 

[lordmonar]

Why?

No need to change the breifing.

Cover the 4-4 major safety issues and just keep repeating them.

Remember the on-line beifing is only supposed to be there for those members who have missed the regularly scheduled unit safety breifing....it is not a replacement.

[Patterson]

^ Understood!  However, I believe national safety Staff should prepare safety presentations for all units each month.  Then a Unit Safety Officer may add specifics to it for presentation based on specific circumstances.

Thought that was what they said they were going to do, but it is still up to the individual unit to create a safety presentation with very little help from national staff. 

[RADIOMAN015]

^ Understood!  However, I believe national safety Staff should prepare safety presentations for all units each month.  Then a Unit Safety Officer may add specifics to it for presentation based on specific circumstances.

Thought that was what they said they were going to do, but it is still up to the individual unit to create a safety presentation with very little help from national staff.

What you need is right on the CAP-USAF safety page:
http://www.au.af.mil/au/holmcenter/CAPUSAF/safety.asp
At least for the general safety items.

Why not just direct the membership to go there & have a little button you press certifying you've read the briefing.  That's all one has to do for OPSEC, why does safety involve all this on line testing?
RM

[a2capt]

^ Understood!  However, I believe national safety Staff should prepare safety presentations for all units each month.  Then a Unit Safety Officer may add specifics to it for presentation based on specific circumstances.

They did that. It was called the Sentinel.

[Patterson]

They did that. It was called the Sentinel.

Nothing more I hate than listening to someone read the Sentinel verbatim out loud and call it a safety meeting.

What sections of the current July 2010 Sentinel do you suggest I go over with my non-flying, 12 year old Cadets?  All I could come up with is the "pee chart", which I already went over before it got hot out three months ago.  All the FAA info, and leadership oriented materials of the Sentinel are not exactly the best Safety presentations for a group of Cadets.

 

[arajca]

Something I've done is use the statistics gathered over several months to develop a general safety briefing/discussion.

"41.4% of CAP members are cadet, but 78.3% of accidents involve cadets. Why do you think this may be happening?"

"54.2% of accidents involve aircraft. 12% involve ground vehicles. 34.8% involve after-the-fact-humor." follow with pertinent free flow dicussions.

NOTE: statistics made up for these examples.

[a2capt]

Nothing more I hate than listening to someone read the Sentinel verbatim out loud and call it a safety meeting.

Ah, yes. Exactly. But that would probably not change with whatever NHQ puts out, it will just get read. Thats a problem of relevance.

What sections of the current July 2010 Sentinel do you suggest I go over with my non-flying, 12 year old Cadets? All I could come up with is the "pee chart", which I already went over before it got hot out three months ago.

I completely understand. Been there before, with the pee-chart, too. I will say that I have at times tried to read "into" the FAA/Aircraft stuff and convert/translate it to something else and usually end up getting a brain ache. It's far easier to ignore it all and come up with other material - which is exactly what we do. My comment about that was made more or less to point out that no matter what someone from up top does, it's not really possible to put out something thats relevant to all who receive it.

[RADIOMAN015]

Other sources for monthly safety related briefing information:
*Any military base Safety Office.
*Local AF recruiter office (they likely get a short safety briefing monthly).

Frankly, most of us have full time jobs, we don't need to be spending our valuable time developing briefing material that likely the military has already developed.  I've seen some pretty good two page safety briefs out of the local base safety office, that we are using (and they are very happy to provide)

RM

[Patterson]

^ Is there a way you are able to share with me??  I approached the AF Reserve and asked, their response was "most items would not be applicable to you or CAP".  I even tried to get the CAP-RAP Officer to help out.  Unfortunately he stopped assisting CAP a couple of months ago as he approaches his 1 year until retirement date.

[jimmydeanno]

Many of the AF Safety briefings are just as awkward as ours are.  Last month, there was a safety briefing sent around to the base that was about fireworks.  The slides included the following tips.

1) Read the directions.
2) Don't put your face over the tubes.
3) Don't put fireworks in hot cars, or in your pocket.
4) Don't let kids play with fireworks.

That was about it.

I'm a big fan of doing safety like we do a pre-flight on the aircraft.  Before you fly, you pre-flight the plane.  Before we drive the van, we pre-flight the van.  So apply it to the other activities we do.

a) Going hiking?  Just before, make sure people have gear and talk about expected weather conditions and dangers.
b) Encampment morning? Weather report, reminder to keep hydrated.
c) Obstacle course?  Walk through.
d) Project X?  Quick brief before the event.

etc, etc.

[AirDX]

I'm a big fan of doing safety like we do a pre-flight on the aircraft.  Before you fly, you pre-flight the plane.  Before we drive the van, we pre-flight the van.  So apply it to the other activities we do.

a) Going hiking?  Just before, make sure people have gear and talk about expected weather conditions and dangers.
b) Encampment morning? Weather report, reminder to keep hydrated.
c) Obstacle course?  Walk through.
d) Project X?  Quick brief before the event.

That's a good practice, and that's what 62-1 wants you to do:

"Safety briefings shall be incorporated into all field training exercises, encampments, and other special activities where members face risk."

Para. 3.e

[AirDX]

^ Understood!  However, I believe national safety Staff should prepare safety presentations for all units each month.  Then a Unit Safety Officer may add specifics to it for presentation based on specific circumstances.

Thought that was what they said they were going to do, but it is still up to the individual unit to create a safety presentation with very little help from national staff.

One of the things I do for my wing is prepare a monthly set of powerpoint slides that I distribute to all the CCs and SEs, with a variety of stuff they can use to brief... including non-flight topics for non-flyers.  Units are free to use as is or amend it to suit their needs.  Takes a couple hours of my time, but if I didn't want to donate a little time, I wouldn't be a volunteer.  It also serves as a reminder from wing of the topics in the annual schedule we publish.

[RiverAux]

It appears that they've started posting new online safety briefings.  Since it happened after I complained about it, I'm going to just go ahead and take credit for instigating it.   

[JC004]

That makes them awesome if they are better than some of the safety briefings that I've had to endure in the past. 

Safety Officers running out of ideas and doing briefings on stuff like how to drive a big rig safely drives me nuts and makes me beeeeeg for new safety materials.  That's not to mention the issue that SOs using stuff like that doesn't contribute to the organization's safety, but whatever. 

[caphornbuckle]

That makes them awesome if they are better than some of the safety briefings that I've had to endure in the past. 

Safety Officers running out of ideas and doing briefings on stuff like how to drive a big rig safely drives me nuts and makes me beeeeeg for new safety materials.  That's not to mention the issue that SOs using stuff like that doesn't contribute to the organization's safety, but whatever.

Safety Officers do have a hard time finding topics.  But if it's the boring and unrelated stuff that gets you, help out your safety officer by finding new and related materials that can be covered and encourage others to do so as well.  Just sayin'.

[arajca]

Safety Officers do have a hard time finding topics.  But if it's the boring and unrelated stuff that gets you, help out your safety officer by finding new and related materials that can be covered and encourage others to do so as well.  Just sayin'.

Better yet, find topics and volunteer to do the briefing yourself.

[JC004]

Safety Officers do have a hard time finding topics.  But if it's the boring and unrelated stuff that gets you, help out your safety officer by finding new and related materials that can be covered and encourage others to do so as well.  Just sayin'.

Better yet, find topics and volunteer to do the briefing yourself.

I didn't say that I didn't, did I?  (I also wanted to see how many times I could fit "did" in)  I was saying that it's outstanding if they're putting new stuff up that can be reused by safety officers who are at a loss for ideas. 

A whole bunch of us talked recently about safety officers all over using topics that were pushing it because they were running dry.  Various members shared weird topics that were used.  I can't make a real assessment since it was an informal discussion, but I imagine that many safety officers run out of ideas after a while and it's great if there are new topics being added by National that can be recycled locally.  For instance, I like the backpack thing as a topic (which is in the latest Beacon).   :clap:

[caphornbuckle]

Safety Officers do have a hard time finding topics.  But if it's the boring and unrelated stuff that gets you, help out your safety officer by finding new and related materials that can be covered and encourage others to do so as well.  Just sayin'.

Better yet, find topics and volunteer to do the briefing yourself.

I didn't say that I didn't, did I?  (I also wanted to see how many times I could fit "did" in)  I was saying that it's outstanding if they're putting new stuff up that can be reused by safety officers who are at a loss for ideas. 

A whole bunch of us talked recently about safety officers all over using topics that were pushing it because they were running dry.  Various members shared weird topics that were used.  I can't make a real assessment since it was an informal discussion, but I imagine that many safety officers run out of ideas after a while and it's great if there are new topics being added by National that can be recycled locally.  For instance, I like the backpack thing as a topic (which is in the latest Beacon).   :clap:

I was just throwing a suggestion up there and if your unit is working together to get these briefings done then I commend you for it!  :clap:

The new safety program has several people scratching their heads.  A lot of it has to do with some of the changes the National Safety Team wants mishaps reported along with other items.  I had the opportunity to discuss a few items with members of this team and actually feel pretty excited about what the plans are for the future (if approved).  It should make the lives of Safety Officers a little easier.

Has anyone checked the Draft version of CAPR 62-1 yet?  Aside from some administrative stuff, it's practically a whole new rewrite.

[Al Sayre]

If you've got nothing else, the Darwin Awards are always a great source of material...

[Thrashed]

I search the regions and wings for their safety newsletters.  I really like the NER safety letter, its better than national. There's plenty of material online for safety breifs for all ages.

[Patterson]

^ Well the former NER Commander is the National Safety Guru. 

[RiverAux]

Has anyone checked the Draft version of CAPR 62-1 yet?  Aside from some administrative stuff, it's practically a whole new rewrite.

No such draft was available in the Publications for Comment section of the NHQ page. 

[JC004]

If you've got nothing else, the Darwin Awards are always a great source of material...

I've done this.  I like to make my safety briefings entertaining.  It works, I think.  I've had members tell me that it was the first safety briefing they actually remembered, etc.  I've sometimes thrown in great examples of people doing stupid things - making points about cost/benefit.  If you're doing SAR, there's a benefit to the risk.  Heck, if you're doing hang-gliding, there's a benefit to the risk (fun or possible terror - I'm not sure - never done it).  Examples such as from there often provide no benefit.  They're just plain dumb, so they're good.

I also like to include examples of cadets doing stupid things and/or SMs allowing such things.  For instance, I like to tell them not to pile out of a moving van.  Then I let them know that this actually happened - a bunch of cadets doing a Chinese fire drill (only moving).

[caphornbuckle]

Has anyone checked the Draft version of CAPR 62-1 yet?  Aside from some administrative stuff, it's practically a whole new rewrite.

No such draft was available in the Publications for Comment section of the NHQ page.

They must have taken it off.  It was available for some time.  I don't know what happened to it unless it's going under another revision or is in the approval process.

It does surprise me that there isn't any publications for comment on there anymore.  There was about 4 of them not too long ago.  Might be a glitch as well.  Dunno.

[AirDX]

If you've got nothing else, the Darwin Awards are always a great source of material...

I was going to say, if all else fails, read the paper, there's always good meat there.  Another good source is News of the Weird: http://www.newsoftheweird.com/.

[SarDragon]

Publicatinos are available for comment for a fixed amount of time (60 days?), then they are taken down.

[RADIOMAN015]

Actually it looks to me like they've posted some new materials, e.g. Hurricanes, electrical down wires, etc.

What you see on the CAP website (as well as the CAP USAF safety web page) is the expectation for the type of briefings to be conducted.    Don't spend a lot of time on this, it's suppose to be informative but to the point!!!

RM 

[EMT-83]

Just don't take all the tests at once. They'll all expire the same day and you'll be scrambling for another briefing!