RIGGERS 29th Mar 07

MINUTES AND MATTERS ARISING FROM THE RIGGERS MEETING OF THE 1 FEBRUARY 2007

The Chairman of STC advised those present that Bill Sharp also had asked the Committee for a number of clarifications from previous meetings: Bill Sharp’s second issue concerned an item from the Riggers Committee Meeting Minutes of 28 September 2006. This item concerned Item 6 of the meeting: ‘To discuss the packing method of Tandem reserves’. The second and third paragraphs of this item as reported in the Minutes stated:

“A good deal of discussion ensued on this issue. It was generally felt by those present that as the subject of pro-packing is being taught on Advanced Packing Courses and some manufactures state that pro-packing is permitted, then the BPA should permit the pro-packing of Tandem reserves.

Following further discussion, it was proposed by Pete Sizer and seconded by Ray Armstrong that Tandem reserves can be packed as per the manufacturers instruction.”

This proposal had been Carried Unanimously.

The clarification Bill had requested for the website was, what exactly was meant by part of the last paragraph ‘as per the manufacturers instructions’.

Bill stated that he believed this should mean that the Tandem reserve has to be packed as per the manufacturer’s instructions as shown in their manual, (according to SI 1/05, Packing Manuals).

Bill was concerned that the wording in the Minutes was a little vague as to what exactly a manufacturer’s instruction could be. He asked if an unsubstantiated phone call or unsubstantiated face-to-face conversation with the owner or an employee of the company, constituted a manufacturer’s instruction, thereby supposedly giving a reserve packer their ‘authority’ to Pro-Pack?

Following some discussion on this matter, it was proposed by Phill Elston and seconded by Rick Boardman that the wording relating the packing of Tandem reserves, be amended to read:

“Tandem reserves can be packed as per the manufacturers written instructions”.

Carried Unanimously

The Chairman of STC advised those present that Bill Sharp had also asked for clarification with regard to the pro-packing of Tandem reserves. Bill had asked that if pro-packing was not stipulated in the particular Tandem Reserve manual, could Tandem reserves still be pro-packed.

Following some discussion on this matter, the Committee agreed that unless the manufacturer stipulated in their particular Tandem Reserve Manual that Tandem reserves can be pro-packed, then the pro-packing of Tandem reserves was not permitted.