How to be a trainer

Responsibilities of Trainers

• creating and maintaining training documentation and reference materials such as an online google classroom if you would like trainees to cover some basics before being at the lab, a 'script' or list of things to cover in the in-person training, and/or after-training reference.
• respond to requests for training on slack and over email.
• performing in-person training for the tool they are a designated trainer for, focusing on safety, cleaning expectations, specifics of the specific tool, and the most basic of tool usage. You are not expected to teach members how to use a well - you should focus on using the tool safely and respectfully.
• update kos.kwartzlab.ca with the new authorization after training has been completed successfully. Trainers should approve only those who they are comfortable approving - if you're not sure a person can use a tool safely or they have actively demonstrated unsafe usage, you should withhold authorizing them for the tool until such a time they can perform adequately.
• identify to the team lead for the area and/or the Board of Directors if there is a shortage of trainers available (either too few trainers or existing trainers have no availability for an extended period of time).
• be a consistent example of a safe and respectful user of the tool in your regular usage.
• remind others of safe usage if you observe unsafe usage.
• report to the board any repeated unsafe usage or if someone's tool authorization needs to be temporarily or permanently revoked.
• review any major injury incident report related to the tool and determine if there was something which should be updated in training (recognizing you can't always train everything)

How to Become a Trainer

Trainers must be approved by the current trainers for the tool, but also by the Board of Directors at an official meeting of the board of directors with a record (e.g. monthly board meeting). The trainers should all meet (virtually or in person) to review the current training script to confirm the same things are being covered by all trainers in the in-person training.

How current trainers vet others who wish to become trainers is left to the current trainers to decide. It is reasonable to expect you are fairly knowledgeable and someone who demonstrates the safe usage of the tool in their own project work.

Also

Being a trainer of a specific tool also gives you the ability to supervise non-members using tools that normally require you to be a member to use. You are, however, not obligated to and should refuse if you are not familiar enough with the tool to guide in its safe usage, or if you cannot actively supervise the person the entire time they're using the tool. You can also supervise members and non-members using tools which require training again provided 'you' are comfortable with guiding the person in the safe usage of the tool. See Tool Usage Policy for the full details.