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A Compassionate Plea for the White Water Paddler

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Maryanne:
Simon, I think you're on the right track...not sure how we can follow it straight off, but it's certainly worth examination.

Speaking as a club member, I was really frustrated for parts of my second year in the club when I couldn't seem to make out the next step out of fresherdom into rescuedom, and got caught in many level 2 training scenarios after having developed skills for grades three and four (at least a little four).
I'll mention at this point, that I did own all my own gear at that time, so perhaps the limiting factor was a group in a similar position with which I could paddle.

Quite a lot of effort was invested this year in training as many of the freshers to certificate level (as many L3 as possible, and the rest L2) very much in mind along this process was that their next year in the club would have to support their continued learning curve. Part of this relates directly to the gear lending policy, having official L3 certs for example, makes it 100% ok to have the cert holders on grade 2 water with no instructor, phase one of workable private trips.

Phase two, progressing past grade 2 water to grade three and four, is a big step, worth taking, but still big.

I'll look into finding what the documents say as a starter point, you're right about making sure that any limiting policies should be in writing and binding rather than second hand and paraphrased.
** This should be after the exams, for my own sake...

What I've heard for sure (form UCD's Safety Officer) last year at the start of being the safety officer, is that
(he explained that these all arise in response to the way a lawyer could argue against us if there was ever an investigation after an accident)
- if a committee member is on the trip it can be argued that the trip is a club trip
- if (any) club gear is present on a trip it can be considered a club trip
- as a club trip the travel form and after trip form should be filled and submitted
- these forms record all paddlers present and are testament to appropriate instructors and ratios in case of accidents
- the committee (as the only official key holders of the boathouse) are responsible for any club gear being used at any time (he stressed that any non-committee held keys were a huge liability)
- when we do lend gear we undertake to lend it according to the gear lending policy and safety document we submit to the AUC (that does seem to suggest we could alter it)
- he said that it's unlikely anyone would try to sue the committee in the case of an accident/incident (cos UCD has more money)
-> considering all of these in the case of an accident, we could be shown not to have followed our own policies, which would get us (the committee and therefore the club), probably not sued, but in significant trouble, with the AUC and with UCD.

**this is to the best of my understanding, I'm not an expert/all that proficient even on legal jargon or how particular wording of the policies might help/hinder us**

Eoghan:

--- Quote from: Maryanne on April 19, 2012, 14:47:25 ---Simon, I think you're on the right track...not sure how we can follow it straight off, but it's certainly worth examination.

Speaking as a club member, I was really frustrated for parts of my second year in the club when I couldn't seem to make out the next step out of fresherdom into rescuedom,


--- End quote ---



--- Quote from: Maryanne on April 19, 2012, 14:47:25 ---I'll mention at this point, that I did own all my own gear at that time, so perhaps the limiting factor was a group in a similar position with which I could paddle.

--- End quote ---

I agree completely!


What I took from the Safety guy was that it is a question of what is a club trip. As a result I always made sure to say in passing that it WASN'T a club trip (when there was some event on the fringes)  :)


I don't know the layout of the actual rules but responsibility really just comes down to the captain, I think. Even if it isn't a club trip and members of the club are caught up in some incident the college will contact the captain (one would assume). So captain is responsible.

I agree with kmck and Simon...what I took from it -  Once the captain is aware of the standard of the group and deems it strong enough I don't see any reason people should be limited to levels or grades. People obviously get hurt on stuff, but once the captain (ultimately responsible) trusts the leaders of the trip and knows the standard of the others isn't way below the standard required, and says that this is being classified "not" club. That would also assume that the leaders of the trip aren't being stupid and saying to someone that they should come - putting pressure on the cap to be the bad guy.

Sorry I've just finished the final year report so quite wordy  :)

to sum up:
Captain with trustworthy/competent leaders + people taking club gear with good attitude and not too far off required standard + "NOT" club trip statement = happy days!  afro.gif

kmck:
Propose it as a trial:
To fufil the gap in training of rescue and paddlers we view that exposure to different types of whitewater will improve the skill base available to the club as a whole
Each trip will follow the normal procedure at the end of each trip like this a full debrief covering the trip. This can be turned into a blog post as well as providing a record of the trip.

Nuala:
I think that the current club lending policy does allow this. Instead of creating specific criteria based on ICU levels it keeps the whole issue very fluid just saying that the call would be made on an individual basis, by two competent members of the Committee, at least one of whom is the Captain.

This means that club boats can be borrowed to run the Upper Liffey or such provided the committee are happy that the group standard is good enough that they'll get their boat back in good condition.

(If this is based on the policy we drew up in Roger's year I think that was the whole point - to make it less rigid and easier to borrow boats if you got the opportunity).

Chunderdragon:
we're going to have to work  very hard at the freshers stand next year to recruit a law student....

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