David Lawley wrote:
I find Graham's comments interesting, why should we do something like this
ourselves when we PAY a large yearly fee to an organisation that is meant
to
look after safety related issues.
It's pretty simple, David. If the people who want it done don't do it, it
won't be done. The RTO Ops are normal people with jobs and families and
kids and gliding they want to do.
Here's something they do - carry out ops checks on the clubs in their area.
In my view, that alone is a full job for anybody who's a volunteer. They
also do a lot of the instructor testing and training, run safety seminars,
investigate and process accident and incident reports and do all the
administrative stuff to do with their Clubs' operations. They take full
responsibility for the operations of the clubs in their charge. That's
pretty open-ended.
The US soaring magazine has a monthly safety column by George Theilen
that
has raised my awareness of many issues, as have Mike Valentine's many
excelent reports in AG(I just finished reading every AG back to 1960!) over
the years. It does not matter how old the report is, 3 months or ten years,
there is always some lesson I believe.
I'm sure you're right. But Mike Valentine's not with us any more and his
replacement hasn't been found.
It seems absurd that a club is not REQUIRED to submit accident/incident
reports to me,surely this is a if not THE fundemantal duty of those who
choose to take a role in OPs administration?
Clubs are actually required to submit reports of incidents and accidents but
that's a long way from getting a volunteer instructor in a club to sit down
and write the report and submit it to the RTO. All of these people are
volunteers. They have other lives to lead.
Maybe if this is an issue some disciplining of clubs who do not comply is
required. Several weeks Suspension of OPS perhaps, that should sort out
tardiness and poor reporting quick enough.
Go ahead. I just want to be a fly on the wall!
Regarding the insinuation of voyeurism in this issue, one should not
assume
everyone has the same motivations for reading such things as one's self
perhaps.
Not an assumption. I pointed out why I thought a crash comic was what Geoff
wanted. We all like a good read but it doesn't necessarily mean it's worth
someone's time to write it.
We managed this in the past why can't we do it now?
What do we get for our fees and where does the money go?
If the RTO/ops doesn't take care of reports of safety issues and
accident/incidents, what on earth does he do?
Maybe an RTO/safety is neede to cover this if the current RTO/OPS are too
busy with other stuff.
I think that might be a very good suggestion but there is a shortage of
volunteers.
Perhaps all clubs should have a safety person who is responsible for this,
as is the case at comps. I do appreciate a lot of work is voluntarily
undertaken by a relatively small group of people but surely safety comes
first?
I think you'll find most do - if not, the CFI is by default. Found it easy
to get a new CFI recently? Make sure they know about the extra work when
you're looking for the next one!
David, I have a simple philosophy in these things. If I see something that
I have the time and skills to do, I do it. I don't ask other people to do
things I don't have the time to do myself.
David - and Geoff and Robert and a lot of others - I don't know if you've
noticed but one of the reasons for gliding losing people is that there's
less spare time these days and the problemn isn't just time for gliding.
The gliding movement is built on volunteers and there are fewer and fewer of
them. Some people leave because they get used up. The whole gliding
business is facing a crisis of too few workers and increasing amounts of
work to be done.
In the past, our club volunteers built a six glider hangar and clubhouse.
We couldn't do that again now. I think the vast majority of clubs are in
the same position.
Now there's a topic worth discussing.
Cheers,
Graeme Cant
_______________________________________________
Aus-soaring mailing list
[email protected]
To check or change subscription details, visit:
http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
