Safety vests and tests

for the purposes of fulfilling "occupational health and safety" requirements have been on my mind.  It is "that time of the year" again. We are all getting ready for the state's annual Show. 

Yes, I am involved again. Of course I am involved. I pulled out the spare safety vest yesterday just in case the judge needs one. She has not done the job before and is filling in for the regular judge who cannot be there. 

I had an email from this new one yesterday. She had some questions, sensible questions but questions which told me she does not know some of the things she needs to know. Yes, we do need to wear safety vests during this time. It is a "working" location. There are fork lifts in some parts of the building and men with all sorts of other things. They are setting up stalls for other people. 

In the "gallery" area in the centre of the building the glass cabinets will already have been set up although the names along the top may not all be in place. That depends a bit on how many items we get in some sections. There will be long trestles between them. We put the items to be judged on those before everything goes in the cabinets. As soon as judging is finished - some time the following week for the cookery classes - the trestles will be put back into storage. But, in the meantime, it is a location where people need to watch out for these things and each other. 

I was worried about taking the Senior Cat's walker last year. Would it be a help or a hindrance? I was told, "We can put it behind the desk if we need to but we can also put things on it. You will be more useful that way." So, I will take it again this year - and I will feel much safer.

Then there is that "on-line safety induction". You need to do it each time you volunteer for anything at the showground...and yes, they do check. I have done the same test four times now. It isn't hard. It is commonsense but I know that there are always people who will panic in an emergency. At least in our area we are not using electricity or other equipment. We let the "egg-artistry" and "china painting" stewards carry the entries for their classes but the other items, while sometimes quite fragile, do not pose the same sort of dangers. We are more concerned about damage to the entries than the danger to people. 

What I am again in awe of is the amount of work that goes into all this, work that most people never see. It is not just the amount of work that goes into the making of some entries but the amount of work involved in administering all this, in calling for entries and seeing to the "paper work" involved. It is the setting out, the judging, the displaying and yet more. Now there is more and more done on line. The entry cards were sent out in emails. Anyone without an email address had to deal with the office procedures for obtaining theirs in other ways. The entries and deliveries are accepted on-line. As a steward I will have someone to help me record the results where it was once done all by hand. (Oh, we still do a certain amount. They do not rely entirely on computers.)

I thought of how much had changed even in ten years. There are good things about this I suppose. It's faster and it seems more efficient but they employ less paid staff now and the volunteers need to do more. Even the Show, which some outsiders view as "old fashioned" and "not changed" has had to come of computer-age.