IATSE Local 140 from Chattanooga, TN taught their first ever TTF Safety First! Instructor Led Trainings (ILT) this month through Zoom. They took the Basic Entertainment Safety and COVID-19: Recommended Guidelines courses and adapted them to distance learning, which is quite remarkable because the COVID course was designed as an individual course and the TTF has not developed it in an ILT format.

Education Coordinator Erin Kellam effectively implemented polling and breakout rooms to make the course truly interactive. The polls helped check for understanding, and the breakout rooms encouraged discussion and varied perspectives by using different participants each time. Participants were so eager to share their views on the dialogue that the trainings took longer than expected.

Local 140 will start requiring the Introduction to Basic Entertainment Safety training as a sign-off for potential new members. They are also going to get every member through at least the Basic Safety and COVID-19 courses and plan to eventually get every member through all 18 online courses. The members who participated spoke very highly about the trainings, and this will serve as a great bridge to the rest of the membership on why they should be invested in future courses from Local 140.