Safety Corner - May 2023
Who Trains the Trainer?
Safety Corner is a monthly column published in CarnivalWarehouse.com's Amusement Warehouse Magazine written by Worldwide Safety Group's president, Avery Wheelock. Please consider a subscription to Amusement Warehouse Magazine to read this and more about the Carnival, Fair, and Amusement Park Industry.
Before we talk about this Month’s topic, I wanted to share some exciting news with all of our readers. Some of you may know that the Minnesota State Fair had sent out an “RFP”, Request for Proposal last fall, looking for a new inspection company for the next 3 years. While I was out instructing at the Northwestern Showman’s Club Annual Safety Seminar, I received an email from Jim Sinclair and Nikki Hines informing me that Worldwide Safety Group was selected as the best fit for their fair and I signed a 3-year contract with a 2-year extension to be the inspection company at the Great Minnesota State Fair!
After what seemed like the longest 3+ months of the year, the vetting process was over and I couldn’t be prouder to add the fair to our ever growing list of clients. We now provide services directly for the North Carolina State Fair, The Virginia State Fair, The Florida State Fair, and now, The Minnesota State Fair. We also provide services at numerous other State Fairs and large county and regional fairs for their midway providers. The largest clients being North American Midway Entertainment, Reithoffer Shows, Deggeller Attractions, and Funtastic Traveling Shows.
We continue to add Amusement Park and Waterpark clients to our client list and grow as a team by adding more inspectors to help keep up with the demand. I can’t wait to see what the future holds and I look forward to our continuing to add more clients.
Worldwide Safety Group Inc. has also had such an increase in demand for ride maintenance and repairs that we have distributed that work to our sister company, ALW Consulting Inc., and will continue to expand those clients that need their equipment repaired or disassembled and reassembled, but don’t quite have enough personnel to perform the work. We have an ever growing group of certified maintenance personnel performing work all over the country, and look forward to the growth that is coming our way.
So, as anyone who really knows me understands, I’m a humble man and tell people all the time “I don’t know anything about anything, but I learn every day”. I just felt so proud about all the great things that are going on this year for our company, that I had to share some of my excitement with you all. I am truly blessed to work with such an amazing group of associates that continue to help grow Worldwide Safety Group Inc. Please like and share our Facebook page and if you know anyone that we can help, please share our website and contact information. I truly believe in “Safety Through Communication” and preach it every day.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming, this month’s topic is who’s training the trainers? I just returned from the west where I was performing State certification inspections for a carnival, and while I was observing the show being set up, I was able to see how some of the supervisors were performing their duties. One worker who seems to be the guy that does many different jobs, was torquing bolts on the Freak Out ride, so I observed this process of the top fasteners being torqued.
While watching him, he would click the torque wrench 3 times on every bolt. I waited for him to come down to the ground and then asked if I could give him some advice. Keep in mind, it’s not my place to interfere with the setup of anyone’s equipment but if I see something, I say something. I explained that while torquing a fastener on any ride, you only tighten the fastener until the wrench clicks once! By clicking it several times you will potentially over torque the fastener and stretch it, creating extra stress on the connection and possibly cracking the fastener.
The worker thanked me for the advice and said he was never taught this information before, he just wanted to make sure it was torqued. As I had observed, he had a good routine and every fastener he did exactly the same, so going forward he will no longer click, click, click, he will just click! I explained that I learn everyday as well, and when we stop learning, we are no longer making a difference.
He was going to pass the information on to the rest of his crew, and with I hope that little lesson saves a fastener from breaking and causing an incident while a ride is running.
So, who is trains the workers? The supervisors right? But who taught them? Are we sending our key employees to training seminars? I have been an instructor at NAARSO, AIMS and the Northwestern Showman’s Safety Seminars for years and I am on the education and certification committees for NAARSO. I encourage everyone to attend the annual seminar. Oh, by the way, I was awarded the 2023 NAARSO Instructor of the Year Award at the closing reception, so I guess my dedication to teaching was recognized. Maybe I am bragging a little this month.
But, as far as the actual ride operators and those that are out there setting up and tearing down the equipment, I would highly recommend attending the Northwestern Showman’s Club Safety Seminar in Portland, OR. It is held at the Funtastic Traveling Shows World Headquarters and is geared for the workers that are doing the work. They feed you three meals a day during the seminar, the Burbacks and everyone one involved do a great job promoting the education of the workers.
The other seminars are geared towards Inspectors, maintenance staff and ride operators as well, but in my opinion, the classes and the entire school for the week is geared towards the ones who need the most training; the front-line people in the traveling carnivals. It is a long time until next February, but please keep it in mind when you are budgeting this fall after having a record breaking summer.
Please have meetings with your supervisors, and make sure that they are creating the safety culture that you want at your company. That way, everyone is getting the training that they need and even returning workers are getting refresher training, I know you hear it all the time from me “Training, Training, Training.” But it will pay back dividends that you can take to the bank. Don’t forget to document that training also —- Just Saying.
Thank you for continuing to support this great magazine and for reading these safety messages. Back issues of these Safety Corner articles are now available on our website under the Safety Corner tab at www.worldwidesafetygroup.com
I hope that you gained one piece of information from this short article on safety and can help make our industry safer and better every day. I can be reached via email
avery@worldwidesafetygroup.com or at 813-505-3938 for any questions or comments, please feel free to provide feedback to help me better communicate these safety related messages. Remember “Our World Revolves Around Safety!” ■
After what seemed like the longest 3+ months of the year, the vetting process was over and I couldn’t be prouder to add the fair to our ever growing list of clients. We now provide services directly for the North Carolina State Fair, The Virginia State Fair, The Florida State Fair, and now, The Minnesota State Fair. We also provide services at numerous other State Fairs and large county and regional fairs for their midway providers. The largest clients being North American Midway Entertainment, Reithoffer Shows, Deggeller Attractions, and Funtastic Traveling Shows.
We continue to add Amusement Park and Waterpark clients to our client list and grow as a team by adding more inspectors to help keep up with the demand. I can’t wait to see what the future holds and I look forward to our continuing to add more clients.
Worldwide Safety Group Inc. has also had such an increase in demand for ride maintenance and repairs that we have distributed that work to our sister company, ALW Consulting Inc., and will continue to expand those clients that need their equipment repaired or disassembled and reassembled, but don’t quite have enough personnel to perform the work. We have an ever growing group of certified maintenance personnel performing work all over the country, and look forward to the growth that is coming our way.
So, as anyone who really knows me understands, I’m a humble man and tell people all the time “I don’t know anything about anything, but I learn every day”. I just felt so proud about all the great things that are going on this year for our company, that I had to share some of my excitement with you all. I am truly blessed to work with such an amazing group of associates that continue to help grow Worldwide Safety Group Inc. Please like and share our Facebook page and if you know anyone that we can help, please share our website and contact information. I truly believe in “Safety Through Communication” and preach it every day.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming, this month’s topic is who’s training the trainers? I just returned from the west where I was performing State certification inspections for a carnival, and while I was observing the show being set up, I was able to see how some of the supervisors were performing their duties. One worker who seems to be the guy that does many different jobs, was torquing bolts on the Freak Out ride, so I observed this process of the top fasteners being torqued.
While watching him, he would click the torque wrench 3 times on every bolt. I waited for him to come down to the ground and then asked if I could give him some advice. Keep in mind, it’s not my place to interfere with the setup of anyone’s equipment but if I see something, I say something. I explained that while torquing a fastener on any ride, you only tighten the fastener until the wrench clicks once! By clicking it several times you will potentially over torque the fastener and stretch it, creating extra stress on the connection and possibly cracking the fastener.
The worker thanked me for the advice and said he was never taught this information before, he just wanted to make sure it was torqued. As I had observed, he had a good routine and every fastener he did exactly the same, so going forward he will no longer click, click, click, he will just click! I explained that I learn everyday as well, and when we stop learning, we are no longer making a difference.
He was going to pass the information on to the rest of his crew, and with I hope that little lesson saves a fastener from breaking and causing an incident while a ride is running.
So, who is trains the workers? The supervisors right? But who taught them? Are we sending our key employees to training seminars? I have been an instructor at NAARSO, AIMS and the Northwestern Showman’s Safety Seminars for years and I am on the education and certification committees for NAARSO. I encourage everyone to attend the annual seminar. Oh, by the way, I was awarded the 2023 NAARSO Instructor of the Year Award at the closing reception, so I guess my dedication to teaching was recognized. Maybe I am bragging a little this month.
But, as far as the actual ride operators and those that are out there setting up and tearing down the equipment, I would highly recommend attending the Northwestern Showman’s Club Safety Seminar in Portland, OR. It is held at the Funtastic Traveling Shows World Headquarters and is geared for the workers that are doing the work. They feed you three meals a day during the seminar, the Burbacks and everyone one involved do a great job promoting the education of the workers.
The other seminars are geared towards Inspectors, maintenance staff and ride operators as well, but in my opinion, the classes and the entire school for the week is geared towards the ones who need the most training; the front-line people in the traveling carnivals. It is a long time until next February, but please keep it in mind when you are budgeting this fall after having a record breaking summer.
Please have meetings with your supervisors, and make sure that they are creating the safety culture that you want at your company. That way, everyone is getting the training that they need and even returning workers are getting refresher training, I know you hear it all the time from me “Training, Training, Training.” But it will pay back dividends that you can take to the bank. Don’t forget to document that training also —- Just Saying.
Thank you for continuing to support this great magazine and for reading these safety messages. Back issues of these Safety Corner articles are now available on our website under the Safety Corner tab at www.worldwidesafetygroup.com
I hope that you gained one piece of information from this short article on safety and can help make our industry safer and better every day. I can be reached via email
avery@worldwidesafetygroup.com or at 813-505-3938 for any questions or comments, please feel free to provide feedback to help me better communicate these safety related messages. Remember “Our World Revolves Around Safety!” ■
