More of the same, but why?

Concrete Producer, The, Nov, 2004 by Rick Yelton

I've been told I need to get with the flow of the new basketball game. It's not a big thing. To move up to ref the big games, I need to adapt a softer style of reporting fouls. Or so I'm told.

When play stops after a whistle for a foul, the calling official goes near center court, reports the offender's number, and describes the foul to the official scorer and coaching staffs.

When I started refereeing 30 years ago, I was taught to report this with only hand signals. I'd finger the player's number, point to the appropriate team bench, and then give the appropriate foul sign.

In today's game of fault-free fouls, I've been told to not point to the team bench. Instead, I'm supposed to call out the team's color. Fundamentally, I understand the need for proper mechanics. But there's a part of me that still wants to blame the coach for not teaching the player how to avoid the foul.

The game has changed in the last three decades. Coaches now spend as much time teaching how to do a "good foul" as they instruct how to make free throws. And if I say the team's color loud enough I won't be able to hear the coach's curses.

Despite my personal feelings, I will make the change. I know no one--not even my wife-goes to a game to watch the officials. And if I want to be at the big games, I need to learn how to do my job in the manner appropriate to the associations' and coaches' wishes.

I wish our industry was as proactive in dealing with our safety inspectors as officials are with basketball coaches. Our fist of annual safety winners demonstrates our managers are committed to teaching their employees how to avoid fouls, or in this case, safety violations. Now, we need to rally all our forces to advise enforcement agents on how to do their jobs. We definitely know our industry better than they do.

I'm not sure we're working hard enough to meet this challenge. There seems to be a lot of time, talent, and money spent on safety. But I haven't heard of too much coordination between national, state, and local initiatives.

Our cover story tells the tale of how the Georgia Concrete & Products Association banded together to create a new version of the job safety analysis for concrete chipping. Its efforts build on the ongoing work started five years ago by the Illinois Ready Mixed Concrete Association. Both groups should be credited for taking on a serious problem.

But there are too few stories like this. There are a lot more topics to cover. Last year, I challenged our industry to come together to develop our own National Safety Council committee for construction materials. Only Tom Harman from NRMCA responded.

Still, I'm convinced there's a need for a more formalized effort. There's been a start. This past year, most of these professionals have been working together to help advise OSHA on the potential problems of crystalline silica.

But what about other safety aspects in concrete production?

The time has come for us to work together. Since no one seems to want to go to the National Safety Council convention, how about World of Concrete? Let's try it and see what happens.

I'm setting aside 1 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 18, in Room $221 at the Las Vegas Convention Center for an open session on important safety topics. There will be no formalized agenda--just a fact-gathering get-together similar to the open session Sylvester Schmidt held at NRMCA's meeting to discuss promotion. Schmidt told me the sessions were packed and offered great ideas for the industry. E-mail me at ryelton@hanleywood.com if you're interested.

If this old official can learn new mechanics, we can work to create a safer concrete industry.

Rick Yelton, Editor In Chief