I’d like to volunteer to get an organized safety initiative going at hackerspace. We’ve had two incidents recently and we are making some great advancements on tidying things up but it sounds like these efforts tend to get undone easily due the the number of people going through the space and general knowledge. Chatting with Mick’s partner (sorry I blanked on your name) it sounds like there’s a desire to get things improved but were not too sure how to make sure they stay improved.
I’m part of a continuos improvement group at work and these types of problems interest me. We’ve got a people dynamic, teaching opportunities, potential regulations that need to be assessed (to see if they apply or not), the landlord and neighbors at the space. I would say that any changes / improvements would need to be voted as we do other matters (don’t need a safety nazi) but just having the awareness should help us improve.
As a first item I’d like to get our location set up properly with emergency services and get a “when calling 000 here’s what to tell them” placards made up to ensure speedy response times.
Also totally willing to support this in any way possible.
@Pommygirl ran through the first aid kits recently and a bunch were lacking (we had to gut another kit to restock the rest and there were sitll some things missing.) I’d recommend a monthly audit of both our PPE and First aid stocks for this reason.
I’m definitely for this too. I can provide site safety audit documents from work that should help point us in the right direction.
Let me know if I’m way out of line but I propose we elect someone similar to the cause leaders as our Site Safety leader. A point of contact to raise safety concerns and oversee continual implementation of the safety policy.
Putting all the safety measures in place will be a huge job though so it’s up to everyone to help out. But having a focal point to provide direction will definitely help.
That’s all…back to resting my brain
I like this idea. A dedicated “safety officer” that is in charge of auditing the safety kits/ppe stock and regularly conducting site safety audits is a great idea. We should put together a site safety check list of things that should be regularly checked. (we could break it up into say monthly, quaterly and annually)
Some things off the top of my head: are dangerous goods on site stored correctly (looking at you batteries), are first aid/ppe kits stocked, are gas bottles/chemicals stored correctly, are all the tools in a safe working state, do all the phones work, do we have safety card/000 cards spread out, are all fire extinguishers in date, are there any misc. safety hazards like heavy things stored on top of cabinets, etc.
Basically it would be that persons job to handle all safety concerns around the space and create purchase proposals to rectify issues or bring things they can’t fix to the attention of the exec/membership where appropriate.
Fwiw nominally section 15 of our rules nominates the vice president somewhat as this person wrt auditing and stock levels. Perhaps the role could be expanded or one of the other exec have it added.
Im all for a safety officer of some kind, however id like to see proposals of hiw it would work. Ie what would their roles/responsibilities/powers be, what happens if they dont do the things etc.
Its going to need careful consideration. I personally would never put my hand up for the role because i would not want to be in the firing line if an incident happened.
Safety is about prevention not cure so I feel like we are getting off track a bit focusing on first aid kit levels. It doesn’t matter how many bandaids or face shields we have if the place burns down.
Also safety is everybody’s responsibility not just the safety officers. I’m proposing the safety officer just be a focal point for raising concerns and coordinating efforts.
Sorry about not replying at all for the last few days. This is amazing start already and it’s awesome to see that we’ve got like minded people. @narfdreyer had a good idea about voting someone to be the site safety leader and how safety is prevention and education. @devians - you make some good points about responsibilities as well. The role does need to have a scope set to it.
@jabelone - You’ve hit the major topics that need to be addressed. Especially the phones and Triple 0 cards. I was looking into getting our site registered with them so they show up to the right spot as well.
We’ve got the trello set up (that i’m not very well versed in using) that could be used for safety specific items being resolved that way we have some tracking. Certain items would need to be scheduled and assigned / volunteered such as extinguishers and first aid kit supplies. I would say the role would be used a resource point to collect and provide resources and advice for members and cause leaders.
Seeing the support being offered up here should I bring it up on Tuesday for a formal discussion / vote? While I’m still fairly new and haven’t done something like this before I’d still be keen to put my hand up for the learning and experience alone.
