KIM school bus-CPS training coming together

Phew!
I'm getting ready to leave for India for almost a month, and now one of the plans I'd been hoping would come to reality is about to be announced.
I wanted to hold a session of the NHTSA school bus-CPS course before the KIM conference in Fort Worth. The location is ideal, as two of the most seasoned trainers for this course are in Texas. Now it looks like it will really happen.
It will be an 8-hour, train-the-trainer presentation—only for CPSTs and CPSTIs—on August 25.
I hope to see some of you there.
DDS

LATCH talk among the cabbages

Today, while in the grocery store, I took a call from my contact with the LATCH Working Group, who shared with me that the auto manufacturers are holding several meetings to discuss the Sunshine Kids SuperLATCH. Even the next “Safety Policy Meeting” of the higher-ups with the Alliance of Automotive Manufacturers has it on their agenda. So the good news is that they are definitely paying attention to this innovation and hope to have some definitive response fairly soon. SRN will report all.

And, no, I didn’t let on that I was in the vegetable department! I simply took notes on the back of my list.
DDS

Roughing it-NB

Well not really. Unless you call sleeping in a real bed (not the kind you roll up and "hike in" with) in a room, in a house on the beach roughing it. We had a company retreat, sort of a state of the union on a much smaller scale than they do it in the big white house on the East coast.

Two days of some very focused, very detailed meetings. With a break for walking on the beach, collecting magic rocks, and sand crafted old glass (aka mermaids beads). We got a lot done, but I needed to sit with my back to the windows, because crashing waves and elegant blue Herons are just too too distracting.

Safe Ride News is cooking along, working hard, and we are very excited at the new products we have and are going to have out this year. (stay tuned, or visit the web site: www.saferidenews.com).

The Handbook for buses has been well received, the feed back is always great to hear. After all the work and research that went into it, it is always nice to know our work is appreciated.

I took a very early morning walk Saturday, while everyone else slept. Fog lay heavy on the beach, making the beach seem mystical, magical (which of course it is). Seals splashed less than 20 feet way, lovely rocks lay waiting to be put in my pocket, and a Heron was dining early before the rush.

Selling like hot cakes on a cold day-NB

The response for the new School Bus Safety Handbook has been amazing. The handbook was back from the printer on Aug 14. And in less than 3 weeks, we have sold over 200 books. Everyone but Molly is working at max capacity. I do not consider sleeping on the papers on my desk and walking across my keyboard working.

The feedback has been totally positive (thank you!). We all agreed, that even with an entire chapter devoted to school buses, in the 2009 LATCH manual (CH 7), more in-depth information was needed.

Like the LATCH manual, this publication does not take the place of training, but it enhances classroom information, and of course is a essential reference tool. (should be one on every school bus)

Purchase does not include syrup, butter or cute checkered tablecloth.

The LATCH Update People Have Been Asking for

I've been too busy to blog! Mary Anderson (a CPST-I from Ohio) and I have been burning up the wireless lines with messages flying between Portland and Ohio for weeks, as we put the finishing touches on a new LATCH Update CD that will offer pre-authorized CEUs. We are very excited about this new CD, which has two separate PowerPoint presentations on LATCH for use at state and other CPST update sessions.

The first presentation, Hooked on LATCH, is a general presentation that expands on the LATCH material in the certification curriculum and includes how to use the LATCH Manual to its fullest. The second, LATCH and Beyond, focuses specifically on new information and products related to LATCH that have come along in the last year or two. Each has complete presenter notes and can be given by CPST Instructors or seasoned CPSTs. They include the very latest changes in CR technology.

All will be ready very soon. Stay tuned ...

—Deborah

I May Become a Techie Yet! - DJD

I'm not what anyone would call a techie person, but I have seen the value of the CPSListserv, and it wasn't much of a stretch to imagine this type of thing working well for folks involved with pupil transportation. I figured a listserv would be a great resource to set up simultaneously with the release of our new publication, The School Bus Safety Handbook.

So, with some helpful tips from Merritt N., our moderator for the CPS version, I put my technophobia aside and dove in to set up the new CPS for School Buses listserv. This being me, of course there were a few technical hurdles, but I would say that it went pretty smoothly compared to other computer challenges I've faced. I wrote the first post, and sat back and waited for subscribers.

The next morning, I was delighted to see my computer churning away as it worked to fill over 70 e-mails into my inbox. AHA -- surely these were 70 members applying to the group, I figured. So I was pretty crestfallen when I found that, rather than new member notifications, every one of the mails was an out-of-office reply! A friend (I won't name names, but hers rhymes with "Fancy Showfont") had tried to set up auto-reply while on vacation, and somehow the system responded retroactively to every mail I had sent to her over the past several months -- totaling more than 70.

Needless to say, this was even more of a disappointment for poor Fancy than it was for me. Shortly afterward, the applications for membership to our new group did indeed start to roll in. We didn't get 70 members on day one, but only 5 days later we do now have over 70 on our list, and its growing steadily! If you are interested in school bus CPS issues, please join us!

Sign up at: CPSforSchoolBuses-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Hear the rumble of a truck?-NB

Well we are all a twitter this AM, and I'm not talking rock star phone tweets (pleeeeeeze).

Our printer is delivering the first shipment of the new bus Handbooks today. We can start filling the back orders. A huge thanks to all of you who have been so patient about waiting. Your handbook(s) should go out in the mail this week.

Karen in NE placed the first order, which called for something special. I'd send chocolate, but she would probably only get part of the box. So I'm sending a $10 coffee card instead.

So blow the horns (school bus type), ring the bells and pop the corks. Probably over doing it to smash a bottle of Champagne over the the pallet.

KIM conference was good-DDS

Hi there,
My head is still spinning from a fascinating Kidz in Motion conference in Fort Worth. I heard that the preemie pre-conference was excellent. I couldn't get there because I was finishing the School Bus Safety Handbook, but I know the speakers were top-notch and the information was balanced right on the cutting edge.

Sessions on recycling CRs to keep them out of landfills, how to set up a "fee-for-service" CR education service for parents who are willing to pay for one-on-one attention, and news of several revolutionary products were a few of the highlights.

The next issue of Safe Ride News will include details on the preemie session and a number of other workshops, as well as the latest product updates from the ABC juvenile products show coming up in Las Vegas next week.

Fort Worth was lots of fun, the food was good, and the hotel was very comfortable. The conference will be there again next summer -- maybe I'll see you there.

Now I'm headed to Colorado for a vacation—something really different from hours at the keyboard, helping to harvest my brother's crop of organic peaches.

New Handbook is almost here-NB

Whew, picking a color for the Handbook cover was as hard as trying to decide which shoes to wear to the Prince's Ball or which dwarf to dance with first. Just call me Snow-derella.

And the final proof is done. So The School Bus Safety Handbook is on it's way to being done. We are all excited with this new, much needed publication. Although Molly (dear office cat) doesn't seem very excited. Not that we could tell.

The table of contents is up on the SRN web site (www.saferidenews.com). The whole job of putting this together only took 3 grown trees, a zillon hours and several gallons of coffee. But who needs to sleep? Can't anyway because the cover is so bright it keeps us awake.