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Time Date	System Updates
Update 872 16 June 2022	HOPS ID CARDS IN AUSTRALIA Following several requests, HOPS is investigating the possibility of providing its ID Card service to Australian Railways. If you are the admin of an Australian railway and might be interested in this scheme please let us know! The system provides an easy way to manage the issue and removal of ID cards via HOPS. They are managed as a normal competence element in HOPS, which means all roles can be interlocked to require a current ID card and default to 'incomplete' if the ID Card is removed or expires. Cards can be verified at any time, by any person, using HOPS or scanning the QR code. Those with appropriate access can view competences and emergency contact information for the person (controlled by normal HOPS permissions). The ID card system provides a good mechanism for checking the accuracy of users' contact and emergency contact details each year, and also opens the way for use of the Time Register system in future if required, for recording hours worked etc. For information, the cost of the system in the UK is: Card production price = 45p per card, delivered to a single point at the organisation. This includes physical card and delivery to your office (or other single point), provision of the system and maintenance of the records etc, card checking facilities. We believe this is the cheapest way to produce the cards, the main cost is the punch-out self-laminating card stationery, which is expensive in small volumes, but we buy a huge volume centrally. Where we send the card directly to the user (in the UK), as an optional extra, the cost of this is 55p per card, which includes the stationery such as envelopes, stamps, etc. This is significantly cheaper than the off-the-shelf price of a second class stamp alone. Cards are sent twice a month (or more frequently if there are lots to send). If we don't do this, we just send the cards to the railway approximately twice a month (for which HOPS bears the cost). The costs related to sending cards to Australia will clearly be greater than this, but if there is appetite for more railways to be involved etc then there is scope to reduce the cost, especially on the possibility of sending directly to users. If Australian railways are interested in having them sent directly to the users' homes it might work out best to have one railway in Australia that receives them as a HOPS outpost and distributes them on using local Australia post. There is an optional "temporary ID card" part of the system, to cover the interval between a volunteer joining and receiving their ID card (some railways require a certain number of turns completed before obtaining the card, due to the shop discounts etc the card attracts). This enables a rule of "everyone must have a card" to be reasonably practicable. Temporary ID Card stock - £5.50 for a box of 125. https://www.heritage-ops.org.uk/product/280 Cards are based on a Competence Element in HOPS and are administered in the "ID Cards" menu on the left hand side - permissions 289, 321 etc required. Here is a link to a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9btFRNPQHkE
Update 865 4 May 2022	HOPS FREE SMS Virtual Workshops No 25, via Facebook Live screencast, on the subject of the the DfT's proposed changes to signage at private crossings. We are delighted to say we will be joined by Dominic Beglin, chair of the minor railways section of the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers for this workshop. The consultation can be downloaded here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1067720/improving-signage-at-private-level-crossings.pdf (Note this is a change to the previously advertised topic for this workshop, which will be re-scheduled for a future date) https://www.hops.org.uk/workshops This workshop concentrates on the development of safety management systems in the context of a heritage railway. Following an excellent suggestion after the first workshop, we invite all participants who wish to to sent in their current SMS overall document to HOPS HQ. This will enable us to read all of them before the Workshop and combine all the best practices. Thank you for this great idea which will help make the workshop even more widely-considered and demonstrate inclusion of input from a wider range of railways! All content will be anonymised before inclusion, so please don't be concerned that you're exposing yourself or your company to liability. --- HOPS has been involved in writing, reviewing or updating Safety Management Systems on a number of railways and is often asked for help on the subject, so we have arranged to continue our successful live online workshops programme in 2021 with the series of SMS Best Practice workshops. The Workshops take place at six-week intervals at 7pm on Tuesday nights. They are live discussion videos, freely available to everyone to attend and ask questions live which we will try our best to answer as we go along based on our experience of SMSs and the management in general of heritage and main line railways. The videos will also be available to watch again later on YouTube. While all railways are different, there are many opportunities for overlap in SMS wording and a majority of overlapping SMS principles that can be applied. The six-week interval between workshops gives time in between each session for the local review and, where railways wish to, adaptation of the output to suit their local needs, before moving on to the next subject. Whatever the strength of your current SMS, it is always good to review it, and good to be able to demonstrate you've reviewed it and engaged with the peer-reviewed best practice. So please do join in the HOPS workshops, share your knowledge, and see what you can learn from other organisations too! --- HOPS has a great many tools to assist in the management of volunteer and employed staff at heritage and volunteer organisations. Previous HOPS Workshops are available to view on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeritageOps/videos/ and YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRu_xPovYjpBegbwS-89jUg EVERYONE IS WELCOME TO JOIN IN. We will respond to comments and queries raised via the comments section during the live video. The video will start at 7pm and last approximately 90 minutes. https://www.facebook.com/events/4872208979571955/