[sac-forum] Waivers? Consider this...
- From: Chuck Akers <akersc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: sac-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2005 14:21:29 -0700 (PDT)
One piece that appears to be missing here is; what are we doing to prevent
mishaps or incidents that SAC could be sued for?
A couple years ago as I was working a public star party I had several people
climbing my ladder to look through my 17.5? Dob, and some of those people
really had no business climbing up and down a ladder in my opinion.
As they were doing so I had several ?what ifs? going through my mind. What if
they fell and decided to hold me liable since they climbed up MY ladder.
I could always have them sign a waiver and stand out of the way, but instead I
did what most of you have done and I made sure that they had help from family
members as I steadied the ladder and explained to them what they were looking
at. I usually made it a habit to briefly advise them how to safely climb up
and down a ladder in the dark and not to pull themselves up with my eyepiece!
I can completely understand why someone who is a volunteer event coordinator
would want some sort of legal protection these days. The problem I have with
the current wording in the proposed amendment is that it appears that we?re
asking to be relieved of responsibility, while doing nothing toward prevention.
How about if as part of signing up for an event, could we also include a short
documented safety briefing? Obviously, you can?t cover everything that could
happen on a dark observing field in the desert, but a safety briefing would
generate some thought and we would be able to prove that we were looking out
for everyone?s safety if we ever needed to.
As Geoff mentioned the infamous McDonalds hot coffee suit, McDonalds doesn?t
have you sign a waiver when you walk in, but there is a very visible warning
sigh on the coffee pot. So I ask you to consider which seems more sensible?
Signing a waiver or simply adding a safety briefing to the sign up list? I?m
not sure if it would even require a constitutional amendment to be safer.
Astronomy is supposed to be fun and it?s always more enjoyable seeing the stars
in the sky, rather than the stars you see from going bump in the dark.
Be safe, and clear skies.
Chuck
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