The Mountaineers Foothills Branch

Branch Safety Officer

Purpose The purpose of the Safety Officer is to facilitate access to and observance of generally accepted safety standards for mountaineering activities such as climbing, kayaking and skiing; to provide resources for education and training our leaders and instructors; and to collect, document, maintain, and distribute data regarding accidents and near misses to our leaders and instructors. These purposes share the goal of nurturing a culture of safety in the Club and Branch structure so that The Mountaineers continue to be recognized as a leader in safety for outdoor activities.  This position reports to the Division Chair.

References Board Policy 424, Accident Reporting
Board Policy 322, Safety Committee

Membership Minimum membership will be a Safety Representative from each division. If an individual isn’t identified, these duties will become the duties of the division chair.

Term of Service One year, may be extended as required by the division chair.

Functions Collect, develop and distribute safety education and knowledge pertinent to each at risk activity.

Each Branch Safety Officer will participate in the Mountaineers Clubwide Safety Committee referenced herein and will thus be a liaison for communication of Clubwide safety concerns.

Help to standardize and educate safety concepts and awareness at the activity level.

Conduct a thorough incident investigation for all serious incidents (as determined by the Branch Safety Officer), contacting parties in a timely manner, following up with parties and writing a factual, thorough report in a timely manner. A trip report, with incident information, may suffice for this requirement. Fatal accidents are investigated by the Mountaineers Club Safety Committee.

Assist the Clubwide Safety Committee with the development and collection of data on at risk activities via trip, accident, and other reports with safety related implications, and make this data available to all activities.

With others at the Club level, work to standardize trip and incident reporting to collect information on routes, accidents, and safety related incidents, and enhance systems to share this information.

Meet with some regularity to provide quarterly reports to the division leadership. Annually, a year end summary will be presented to the division, summarizing the clubwide activities of the prior calendar year and Clubwide Safety Committee recommendations for the upcoming calendar year.

If you are interested or have questions, please e-mail foothills.branch@gmail.com, with Safety Officer in the Subject line.

Last modified Feb 28, 2010

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