GYM BLEACHER OPERATION, THINK SAFETY FIRST

With the start of another school year and a million things on your plate, don’t lose sight of Gym Bleacher Safety!

The Gym Bleachers should ONLY be operated by Trained and Authorized personnel. Never Allow Students to operate the Gym Bleachers. Please remember to keep all controls or keys securely stored.

The Quick Reference below is intended to serve as a general guide, be sure you have read and are familiar with the complete operating manual. For Non-Friction Power Systems be sure you are familiar with the supplemental guide.

1. CAUTION: Never allow untrained or unauthorized personnel to operate the bleachers. The bleacher operation should be by trained personnel only, damage to the equipment or personal injury could result. Students should not be permitted to operate the bleachers.

2. The pendant control or switch key on power-operated bleachers should never be left unattended and should be used only by trained and authorized personnel.

3. Be sure the area beneath or under the bleachers, on each side, in front of and in back of the bleachers is clear of any obstructions, equipment and/or personnel before operating.

4. Be sure the intermediate aisle rails have been removed and/or folded down and do not obstruct the opening or closing.

5. Be sure to remove or properly store the front step before opening or closing.

6. Be sure any accessories have been removed that could obstruct the process of opening or closing.

7. It is recommended that the opening and/or closing process be a two-person operation (trained and authorized personnel only), one person to operate controller and observe and monitor (visible and audible) operation, the other person to observe and monitor (visible and audible) operation. CAUTION: Be sure all obstructions have been removed prior to opening or closing. CAUTION: Be sure no one is under or on or around the bleachers during the opening or closing process. CAUTION: Be sure all moving parts, motors, and accessories are free and clear of any obstructions.

8. Never attempt to continue the process of opening or closing if the bleachers bind or jam or do not track evenly. Stop and check for obstructions, it may be required to reverse the procedure and start again. Do not attempt to force the bleachers. Do not attempt to operate the bleachers if visible or audible problems are present. 

9. Be sure all rails have been properly stored or removed prior to closing and be sure all rails have been properly set in place after opening prior to use.

10. Note: On bleachers equipped with Flex-Rows the Flex-Row is manually opened and closed. Be sure the Flex-Rows are locked into place.

Gym Bleacher Safety

I Need New Gym Bleachers! How Many People Can I Seat?

How many people can I seat?

As you might suspect, I hear this a question a lot from coaches, school officials, architects and designers. The answer can vary greatly based on the available space presented by the building conditions, the local building codes (where the project is located), the requirements of ADA (in Texas this is determined by the Texas Department of Licensing  and Regulations) and the Life Safety Code which is part of the National Fire Protection Association guidelines found in chapter 102 (NFPA 102). Each of these can have a governing effect on the final seat count.

But first, we need to define some common terms and guidelines used by the bleacher manufacturer’s.

A. Gross Seats

B. Net Seats

Definitions:

Gross Seats. The manufacturers use this term to define the maximum number of seating spaces available on a bank of gym bleachers. This would be the maximum possible amount of seats in the available length times the number of seating rows. Or length times number of rows divided by 1.5 and rounded down. For example: 87 feet x 8 rows= 696 divided by 1.5= 464 Gross Seats.

Net Seats. The net seat count is the actual number of actual seat spaces available for use. To determine net seats, first you would need the gross seat count minus the seats lost to aisles and ADA spaces and building conditions (i.e. wall columns that protrude into the bleachers). Building codes, Life Safety Codes and ADA codes all factor into the final or net seat count. In other words how many aisles are required? How wide are the required aisles to be? How many ADA spaces are required? For Example: In the bank size illustration above the required number of aisles to provide ingress and egress extending to top seating row would be 3 aisles. Each aisles would be 4’ 6” wide or the loss of 3 seats per row, per aisle.

There are factors that can have an impact such as Row Spacing, Row Rise, Seat Depth and Clear Space, but for the most part the number of aisles, width of aisles and number of ADA spaces required will be the most common factors to consider.

Rule of Thumb Estimating Shortcut

To achieve the true net seats you will need to know the local building code, the ADA requirements and building conditions. However a good rule of thumb for estimating  the net seats is reducing the gross seats by 20%. In the example above 464 gross seats less 20%= 371 net seats.

I hope this info is helpful. 

Social Media's Texas-sized marketing impact

(NOTE: Originally published at HusseySeating.com)

Social media today is an absolutely core marketing strategy in the toolkit of many of America’s largest and most successful corporations. Millions of dollars are invested in crafting the right strategy, implemented with sophisticated software tools  to execute the campaign, gather the metrics and provide the analysis to measure the ROI.

Then there’s the rest of us. The ones with lean marketing budgets and small staffs, or those with leaner marketing budgets and no staff. The ones who don’t have the luxury of allocating some staff time and some discretionary dollars to test drive a marketing channel for a few months or quarters just to see how it performs.

Social media today is an absolutely core marketing strategy in the toolkit of many of America’s largest and most successful corporations. Millions of dollars are invested in crafting the right strategy, implemented with sophisticated software tools  to execute the campaign, gather the metrics and provide the analysis to measure the ROI.

Then there’s the rest of us. The ones with lean marketing budgets and small staffs, or those with leaner marketing budgets and no staff. The ones who don’t have the luxury of allocating some staff time and some discretionary dollars to test drive a marketing channel for a few months or quarters just to see how it performs…

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