Member Safety Training and Mandatory Reporting Question

[Weaklefthand4ever]

I wanted to reach out to the broader audience and experience of the general population here for this question. I am going to make a broad assumption that all of the corps in DCI do NOT use the same curriculum for mandatory member safety and reporting training. That being said, this is transparently assumed from my experience with one corps and that was quite a long time ago. 

My question is simple. Why is this the case? A single curriculum, professionally built, edited yearly and uploaded to an LMS with robust reporting is relatively inexpensive if the cost is spread across all member corps. The type of curriculum that I have built and managed, allows for the same message to be presented, consistently and the reporting is fantastic. I just rolled out a training to over 50k employees in the US. I can track completion in reports that take less than 10 minutes to run. If I need to flex to instructor led instead of e-learning, I offer that option to any vendors who we outsource to. 

It just seems that if I am correct, leaving writing and delivering something of this level of importance up to individual corps, is not the best way. Who is reviewing their curriculum, testing the participants for knowledge and ensuring that the message is consistent and of equal importance, legally compliant? 

I've been doing this now for 23 years. I have started to reach out to few corps to literally review their materials and make recommendations for free. I doubt very much that I will get any traction, but the offer is there because these actions are VITAL to the members and staff. 

But again, I go back to why is it this way?

[scheherazadesghost]

What he said...

[fighterkit]

5 hours ago, Weaklefthand4ever said:

I wanted to reach out to the broader audience and experience of the general population here for this question. I am going to make a broad assumption that all of the corps in DCI do NOT use the same curriculum for mandatory member safety and reporting training. That being said, this is transparently assumed from my experience with one corps and that was quite a long time ago. 

My question is simple. Why is this the case? A single curriculum, professionally built, edited yearly and uploaded to an LMS with robust reporting is relatively inexpensive if the cost is spread across all member corps. The type of curriculum that I have built and managed, allows for the same message to be presented, consistently and the reporting is fantastic. I just rolled out a training to over 50k employees in the US. I can track completion in reports that take less than 10 minutes to run. If I need to flex to instructor led instead of e-learning, I offer that option to any vendors who we outsource to. 

It just seems that if I am correct, leaving writing and delivering something of this level of importance up to individual corps, is not the best way. Who is reviewing their curriculum, testing the participants for knowledge and ensuring that the message is consistent and of equal importance, legally compliant? 

I've been doing this now for 23 years. I have started to reach out to few corps to literally review their materials and make recommendations for free. I doubt very much that I will get any traction, but the offer is there because these actions are VITAL to the members and staff. 

But again, I go back to why is it this way?

I could be misinterpreting the question and feel free to correct me, but does SafeSport not fall under this?

I know that was mandatory for every member in 2022, I want to say that it continued to 23 as well but I don't recall since I was aged out. 
 

When I did the SafeSport training it had member safety, as well as how to report and the proper steps. I won't pretend to say whether or not that is super useful or helpful, but I thought it was. 

[rmurrey74]

It already is the same, consistent and mandatory through SafeSport. 

[scheherazadesghost]

From what I can gather of SS. It's one hour delivered by video, and it's the same for members and staff. Is that accurate?

[rmurrey74]

90 minutes. Mandatory for all members, staff, volunteers, drivers, etc. 

[scheherazadesghost]

Let's pack up boys. Mission accomplished?

[JimF-LowBari]

10 hours ago, fighterkit said:

 
 

When I did the SafeSport training it had member safety, as well as how to report and the proper steps. I won't pretend to say whether or not that is super useful or helpful, but I thought it was. 

Any details on what was considered “member safety”? I had Department of Defense sexual harassment and sexual assault training every year. Besides reporting we had training in recognizing possible harassment when it was being done to others. IOW protect your team (here corps) mates. Also steps to protect yourself including keeping a log of incidents that can be used by an investigator.

And the biggie: if one person says they are uncomfortable with something being done or said… then it should stop. None of this “everyone else is ok with it so what’s your problem BS”. Thinking of the Spirit problems from the other year as I type this.

Edited September 17, 2023 by JimF-LowBari

[Weaklefthand4ever]

I'm not implying that Safesport is not a good program or that it's vital. The questions would still be same of any program. 

1. How comprehensive is it

2. Is there testing to ensure understanding and knowledge transfer

3. Is it tracked for compliance by a 3rd party and enforced

Again, it could be an excellent program. In my world we do 2 hours alone on sexual harassment prevention at the entry level for employees. Managers have FAR more hours of training as they are responsible for any employee that comes to them (plus about 12 hours of compliance work twice a year.) 

It could be an apples and oranges comparison. I am simply posing questions. 

Just as an aside, a LOT of study has been taken place on adult learning theory over the years as you can imagine. Video presentation comes in towards the bottom of the list when designing curriculum (still above lecture alone.) Adults tend to have limited recall of what they have seen and heard without additional learning methods to reinforce the skill transfer. 

 

[rmurrey74]

27 minutes ago, Weaklefthand4ever said:

I'm not implying that Safesport is not a good program or that it's vital. The questions would still be same of any program. 

1. How comprehensive is it

2. Is there testing to ensure understanding and knowledge transfer

3. Is it tracked for compliance by a 3rd party and enforced

Again, it could be an excellent program. In my world we do 2 hours alone on sexual harassment prevention at the entry level for employees. Managers have FAR more hours of training as they are responsible for any employee that comes to them (plus about 12 hours of compliance work twice a year.) 

It could be an apples and oranges comparison. I am simply posing questions. 

Just as an aside, a LOT of study has been taken place on adult learning theory over the years as you can imagine. Video presentation comes in towards the bottom of the list when designing curriculum (still above lecture alone.) Adults tend to have limited recall of what they have seen and heard without additional learning methods to reinforce the skill transfer. 

 

I’m sure it’s not perfect. It seems comprehensive to me but I’m not an expert. It reviews signs to look for, mandatory reporting, multiple scenarios with questions/quizzes throughout. To me, I had to pay attention throughout.  It’s a 3rd party and yes, it’s enforced.  It’s  also a WGI requirement and probably for other circuits as well.  

I also had in person training/policy review early in spring training, reminders throughout the season, reiterated through member and staff contracts and DCI did a full town-hall event for all drum corps on the topic last year.  

I’m sure it could be much more, but It’s far and beyond anything I’ve ever had at any of my non-band/drum corps related jobs that I’ve held during my career. I work for a Fortune 500 and it’s a 15-20 minute training video once a year for Managers/Directors. 

Edited September 17, 2023 by rmurrey74