Risk Assessments

I suppose the Club will have already done this for its own sites and wardens, and for its own CLs and their owners.  Can the Club head office staff share their procedures and guides with you if you are running a rally for Club members?  

This might help bill. It can seem very daunting at first, but read through, and hopefully it will make sense. Most risk assessments are about probability and severity. I would also suggest asking Club HQ if the have any guidance they could give you, particularly anything documented about how they re opened Sites, as if nothing else, it might just be a memory jog for a lot of things to consider. Walk yourself through administering, arriving, spacing, living on the site, leaving the site, ralliers details, things like PPE, any specific new rules for attendees. It might help if you do it with someone else, maybe another person who might be organising a rally. It’s good to get a different point of view.

https://www.hse.gov.uk/simple-health-safety/risk/risk-assessment-template-and-examples.htm

 Edit this is a work related document, but it will give you an indication of the sort of things you will need to consider. It might be an idea to consider running it past the Club as well to see if there might be any legal implications for yourself, as being the named person organising the rally. Good luck with it.

Risk assessments are a bit like Sod's Law in reverse! I think COVID introduces a completely new dimension to risk. It's not so much about injury risk but personal risk where you don't necessarily know where the risk will be. The real problem for you will be trying to work out what the health situation will be several months forward, will it be better or will it be worse. How happy will your rally goers be to comply with sensible restrictions like distancing and perhaps PPE? I don't envy your task. I help run a former employee pensioner group and we have come to the conclusion that the earliest we can recommence our monthly meetings is the new year but more likely late Spring. OK perhaps your rally goers are in a less vulnerable age group?

David

TDA's link to the Health and Safety Executive is the best way to start and you can fit your own template to the circumstances you are facing. Hope the rally goes ahead and you all enjoy it.

The problem is that all the examples online are work related and are much more obvious than the risk of a virus.  The interesting thing is that the rally is on a club site and they must have a risk assessment but have still asked me for one.

The only type of things I can think of to stop contamination are :-
Cash only in sealed envelopes
No welcoming Tea/coffee
No flag
Strict social distances
Regular hand washing
Strict adherence to site rules
Any Covid 19 symptoms to be reported to marshals and return home.

Much of which seems like teaching your grandmother !

Bill

Payments can be made in advance by bank transfer to avoid handling cash. 

OH has had to help reorganise a Covid safe local fishing club. They set up a PayPal account, most managed to negotiate their way through new methods of doing things. If they couldn't at least the cash handling has been significantly reduced. Social distancing hasn't prevented social contact. People can take their own drinks and meet in smaller groups etc.

Hope you manage to sort something!

Bill, you are thinking along the right lines. If it’s on a Club Site, then yes, the location will have a RA in place, and you can build on this. 

Forgive me, but not familiar with rallies, but have camped at some organised events which I suppose are similar. Usually payment is upfront, via electronic means. Information sheets sent out to participants, including what will and won’t be allowed, arrangements for arrival, pitching up, safety on site, (get a copy of any instructions in place for Site, including toilet and shower usage, and stressing using own onboard facilities), what activities are happening, any emergency requirements (which in your case will be a list of those attending for track and trace purposes, and strict protocol on liaising with on site staff and yourself). Get as much written information from Site as you can, and give this out to ralliers. It’s stressing the no gatherings and communal activities that you need to concentrate on. On a Club Site most things will be in place all ready, you just need to provide everyone attending with this information, and the changes that need to happen in terms of normal rally protocol. 

I still consider that as governance is busy telling us what we can't do on a rally, why is it that if they know already the why don't they produce a generic RA, I appreciate that some rallies are different, but most if not all bases could be covered and then cross thru' the ones you don't need.

And then to state that a rally is considered pending until you have sent it in before the rally, and if they are not happy, another 7 days go by to get it corrected that could then place the rally in doubt ?

Why should the club put all this onus on the centres ?

Thank you for your comments which I have appreciated.  I agree that the CAMC should produce a generic rally risk assessment which could be modified by marshals as appropriate.  The risk, as far as I am concerned as an organiser, is attendees catching the virus.  All other physical risks are the site owners as I am not necessarily aware what they are doing to lessen risk.

One element of concern to avoid the spread of the virus is payment.  The vast majority of rallies are cash on arrival.  This is usually so that the marshals can pay the site owner on leaving so cheques, unless in the name of the site owner, are not helpful.  Would be interested in any ideas people have as I am now looking at :-
- rounding off rally fee so no change
- cash in sealed envelope for 72 hours
- cheques in the name of the site owner
- bank transfer in advance 

Unfortunately it does seem a lot of work and responsibility on the shoulders of marshals who are only volunteers anyway.  Bill

It would be best if you could set up something electronic, it is probably only a bit involved first time round, but once set up can be used again and again.

Only other thing I can suggest is cash handed over with gloves, checked by yourself in gloves, coins into a disinfection bowl, notes into quarantine (given that they are now plastic, it might be possible to wipe them over, you could check?) You bank everything, but pay the site owner via your card. Personally, I would go with the electronic set up.

If your rally is on a Club Site, can’t you liaise with the Club and arrange for fees to be paid directly to Club on arrival, by each rallier? Using a bank card? If the Club needs to sell pitches, then it might help you with this?

To be honest, it does seem a lot of faff to rally on a Club Site. Could those interested not simply book into the Club Site, you pass on a nod and a wink to the Site seeing if you can’t have a group of pitches all together, discard the tea, flag and any other large social interaction needs, but get on with being together? You are going to be bound by whatever is in place on the Club Site anyway, so the only difference is getting the pitches together, to my mind, perfectly reasonable under these circumstances. Rallies other than on Club Sites will need a lot more input.