2022 July 30 Rules Class

[Jason M Lamontagne]

Hello folks,

I am just trying to get a qualitative feel of the potential attendance at this years Rules Class.  We may adjust the structure of the meeting depending on the expected participation level.

This year’s class is on Saturday July 30, 2022.  There is a general session in the morning, and break-out sessions for several disciplines (brakeman, engineer, conductor, etc) in the afternoon.  The afternoon will likely occur on the Mountain as territory training- with breakout sessions accommodated there on.

Feel free to answer the poll, respond to this thread, or both if you will or may attend.

Thank you.
Jason

[Bill Baskerville]

Will the morning general discussion be on line as well?

[Jason M Lamontagne]

Yes, that’s the intent.

If it looks like attendance will be light- we’ll shift more of the program to Mountain training.  If there’s a lot of classroom need, we won’t be able to do that.

Thanks
Jason

[Jason M Lamontagne]

PLEASE NOTE I edited tue poll to allow respondents to specify if they intend to attend remotely or in person.  That’ll help us design the morning session appropriately.

Thanks
Jason

[Ed Lecuyer]

Rules class is live at www.wwfry.org/meeting if anyone wants to join. If no one joins by 10am the Livestream will end.

[Mike Fox]

Was it recorded? I wanted to attend at least the morning but the Backhoe killed that idea.

[Bill Baskerville]

Ditto on Mikes request about if it was recorded.  I missed the 20 minute advanced notice.  Perhaps in the future we could spread the word a day or two before?

[Bill Reidy]

Of the annual rules class I've been able to attend onsite or remotely, I think this one was the best held so far.  Extended discussion was held throughout the day as safety topics were discussed, as folks shared operations experience.  A good trend to make us all better.

I've posted a WW&F Conductor's Checklist this afternoon, updated with yesterday's feedback, here under the Operating Crew section of the forum.  I hope all Operating Crew (not just Conductors) will provide feedback with suggestions leading to improvement.  Thanks.

[Joe Fox]

May I add, I like the idea of the training train as part of the class. It gives everyone a chance to review the more common rules that we may not even think about, and see them put into action. The class as a whole was great, informative, and more.

It is also good to see how if someone does something wrong, or right, that the class can then understand what occurred, etc. AND, it is a learning experience and not criticism. I agree with Bill, top notch all the way. Everyone who organized it, did a Phenomenal job.

[Jason M Lamontagne]

Thanks all.  The morning agenda was largely the same as last year- the key difference in my opinion was the expressed idea that group discussion was more important than keeping up with the agenda.  As such, if valuable group discussions caused us to not get through the entire agenda, so be it.  We would watch for any items that we needed to hit and adjust accordingly.  As it was- we had a number of very valuable group discussions, that I believe we all learned from, and still completed the entire morning agenda comfortably and un-rushed, as I saw it.

I agree the training train in tue afternoon was a very natural way to review basic ops as well as territory.  Perhaps a little more tweaking to accommodate a more thorough engineer’s session- but all in all I think the pattern is worth repeating.

We had a great discussion on the important aspects of steep grade operation for all disciplines.  I intend to write this up and release to the crew, as an informational piece.  This will be a piece of territory qualification.

We have discussed moving next year’s session to September, prior to Pumpkin Trains. 

Any further feedback is most welcome,
Thanks
Jason