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Maintaining Interest in Safety Departmental meetings have many safety uses Their purpose may be to discuss the company safety program so that employees will better understand what is going on They may be held to provide information about accident causes and accident types They may be purely inspirational, to create an awareness of hazards and a desire to pre vent accidents In many company programs, departmental safety meetings are held monthly The trend is toward meetings conducted by the foreman, who may receive assistance in planning as well as materials, such as visual aids, from the safety department The program for a departmental meeting may include the following 1 Report of injuries in the department since the past meeting, report of a safety inspec tion in the department, and report of the department's standing in a contest (The total time spent on reports must not be so great that this part of the meeting becomes tiresome ) 2 Discussion by the foreman of where ob servance of safe practices needs to be im proved 3 Talk, demonstration, or visual-aid presenta tion on an appropriate accident prevention subject The speaker may be the foreman, a member of the department, the company safety director, an outside expert, or an executive of the company Departmental meetings give the foreman an opportunity to point out in a forceful man ner the dangers of certain unsafe practices By condemning those practices, he practically binds himself to set a good example for his men In addition, most workers welcome an opportunity to "get off their chests" whatever safety ideas thev have At the conclusion of departmental meet ings, the foremen should be required to pre pare written reports for presentation to the plant safety committees and review by the managers Small group meetings with men doing sim ilar kinds of work can be held at or near the work place The supervisor or foreman may discuss the causes of an accident of which the men have personal knowledge or m which they have personal interest The men should be encouraged to join m the discussion, and a conclusion should be reached as to show the accident might have been prevented The supervisor may present a problem that has developed because of new work or new equipment Again the men should partici pate and offer their views At times the supervisor mav present a film or chart talk on a subject related to the work of the group members Other visual aids such as models or exhibits may be used Safety devices or pieces of equipment or material mav be shown and discussed "Production huddles" are instruction ses sions about a specific job being done that in cludes safety Such meetings are particularly useful with maintenance crews when an un usual job is about to start The plans for doing the job safely and efficiently are gone over and a procedure is agreed upon Public utility line crews use this type of meeting and call it a tail board conference Before start ing a job, the crew gathers around the truck and discusses the job, laying out the tools and materials they will need and agreeing upon the part each man is to do A particular advantage of small group meet ings is that they provide excellent opportuni ties for presenting all types of information, including safety information, directly to em ployees and stimulate exchange of ideas that can benefit the accident prevention program To be successful, the small safety meeting must include a tangible message, originality of presentation, opportunity for audience par ticipation, and a conclusion that spurs action toward an attainable goal Planning programs Making the safety meeting interesting is of the utmost importance There should be no complaining or scolding Talks should be definitely limited in time and thev should start and end on time The subject matter of a talk should be considered in advance to make sure that it is pertinent and does not repeat other talks recently presented Large occasional meetings need even more careful planning and timing than do small meetings People who are to speak, includ ing company executives, should review what they intend to say with the person planning 174