21st October
OISTAT Meeting

ABTT CEO, Robin Townley attended a skype meeting today with Wan-Jung Wei, the Executive Director of OISTAT, the International Organisation of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians. The meeting was organised to strengthen the connection and get to know more about our Centres.

OISTAT stands for “Organisation Internationale des Scénographes, Techniciens et Architectes de Théâtre” in French, and “International Organisation of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians” in English. It is a worldwide organisation for scenographers, theatre architects, theatre educators and theatre technicians.

OISTAT generates, promotes and maintains a global network of specialist practitioners, educators and researchers who shape, challenge and imagine elements, events and environments for live performing arts.

The ABTT is one of the 2 UK centres of OISTAT. As such, anyone who is a member of the ABTT can also participate in OISTAT, activities, exhibitions, and seminars.

You can find out more information about OISTAT here.

22^nd October
Training and Education Committee

The Training and Education Committee met today to discuss a variety of issues including but not limited to:

• The Glasgow Bronze Course being delivered in January 2020.  To find out more, you can do so here.
• The Manchester Bronze Course being delivered in April. To find out more, you can do so here.
• The introduction of a Carpentry Course. The Committee have found a market for such a course including well-known theatres and Appreticeship schemes and discussed the sourcing the venue/ tutors and content.
• The on-going Creative National Venue Technician – part of which is delivered by the ABTT in the form of its Bronze Award Qualification.
• The completion of successful sessions of filming for our new ABTT Training videos.  These can be viewed here.
• Ladder Training for under 18’s.Currently being reviewed to ensure as beneficial as possible to candidates.
• The introduction of a Self Assessment questionnaire for potential Bronze candidates has been agreed and will be available to use shortly.  The main reason for this questionnaire is to help potential candidates decide if the Bronze is applicable of if they’re better going for a Silver course.

24^th October
Safety Committee Meeting

The ABTT Safety Committee met this afternoon to discuss several safety issues and updates. The ABTT Safety Committee is responsible for the compilation and publication of the ABTT Codes of Practice and plays a vital role in the group publishing the Technical Standards for Places of Entertainment, known as the ‘Yellow Book’.

The following projects are currently being developed by the Safety Committee and were discussed in detail during the meeting:

Yellow Book Fire standards – compliance with BS9999:2017

Alignment with BS9999: an initial meeting was held with Andrew Nicholson and Alastair Crossley of the Fire Surgery and a plan for revision was identified.

Pyrotechnics

The need for a detailed document was discussed and

we generally use T1 (& occasionally T2) pyrotechnics within Theatre, the safety instruction sheet we have in place at present should be suitable to guide our members to a safe system of work. This being said it is recommended that we review the current document and amend/update as necessary to suit this outcome.

CoP on Fibre Ropes, Wire Ropes and Flying (3-Piece suite)

Now editing final copy.

Counterweight, Flying inspection and maintenance Sheet

The sheets are currently being edited by the Publications team to ensure a consistent language, parallel to that used in the Technical Standards is in place.