My critique of safety procedures on our website!

Hi SBW committee,

It wouldn't be fair to those involved in the proposed new safety procedures for me not to point out similar problems with our current safety procedures on the website. After all, if there were no problems with the safety procedures on the website, then we wouldn't need new procedures! Here is a summary of what I have been able to find. You will probably have others that you can add to this list (which is in no particular order).

1. Up until 8 days ago, the "Protocol for Overdue Walkers" was so far out-of-date it wasn't funny! It still required leaders to report in to their Walks Coordinators when we have actually been reporting in to Tony as the Circle Manager and Mary as his replacement for many, many years. Fixed now, but sloppy work from the Webmaster.

2. The "Safety Procedures for Leaders" page - which was just called the "Safety Procedures" page until recently - is a too-short summary of the "Leader Responsibilities" page and really doesn't need to be on the website. Instead, the "Leader Responsibilities" page should be added to the "Safety" menu in its place, as almost all of the "Leader Responsibilities" page is concerned with safety e.g. walk description including where cars will be parked, determining fitness of walkers, checking walkers have the required equipment, getting emergency contact details etc.

3. Similarly, the "Walker Responsibilities" page which is currently under the "Walk Info" menu should also be included under the "Safety" menu as almost all of the "Walker Responsibilities" page is concerned with safety too e.g. make sure you are capable of completing the walk, all the stuff you should carry (food, water, thermals, torch, whistle etc.), keeping other walkers in site during the walk, waiting at intersections etc.

4. The "Emergency Procedures" page is a PDF file that tells leaders what to do in an emergency, but it probably should be in he same format as the other safety pages, and it is woefully inadequate. It only deals with the whole group getting lost / misplaced, with what to do if someone is injured, and what to do if someone can't or won't continue. It should also include what to do if someone goes missing, what to do if someone dies, and what to do if there is a bushfire or flood or lightning - or at least include links to pages that deal with these problems. I'm sure others will think of other emergency situations that should be covered.

5. The "Emergency Procedures" page is also out-of-date as it references EPIRBs and these have been replaced by PLBs for at least a decade or more.

6. Even though I updated the "Protocol for Overdue Leaders" page recently, it still contains the phrase "leaders should have the telephone numbers of the Safety Contact ..." and they already have those numbers because they have the Waiver Sheet with them. I am pretty sure I had a go at Julienne for saying the exact same thing, but she was probably basing her procedures on the text from the current "Protocol for Overdue Leaders" page - so both mistakes were mine! Sorry Julienne!

7. The "Bushfire Policy" page is also a PDF file and really needs to be converted to a normal web page.

8. The "First Aid Kit Recommendations" page contains information about ambulance cover - who would go looking for ambulance cover on a First Aid Kit page???

9. The "Snake Bite First Aid" page is a PDF file, but it was produced in 2011 and should be looked at to see if it needs to be updated or replaced.

10. The "Lightning Safety" page is a PDF file and needs to be converted to a normal web page. It contains a lot of useless information for bushwalkers - like "Do not bathe, shower, wash dishes ... do not use computers, laptops, washers, dryers, stoves ... avoid corded phones ... draw all curtains and avoid windows etc.

11. References / links to the Bushfire, First Aid Kit, Snake Bite first aid and Lightning Safety pages should be included in other pages like "Leader Responsibilities", "Walker Responsibilities" and "Emergency Procedures".

If you find anything else on the website - especially to do with safety - that needs to be updated, please let me know. I will pass it on to the new Webmaster if we find one, or will action it myself if I ever find myself in the Webmaster role again.

Cheers,
Brett