We’re focusing on health

and safety training dur-

ing November with re-

fresher training for most

members of staff in Col-

lege. This will include

manual handling, fire

safety awareness, noise

and HAV training, risk

assessment, and asbestos

awareness training, and

ending with fire extin-

guisher training on 28

November. Details of

training sessions will be

circulated to all relevant

staff.

H&S Audit

The College’s health and

safety procedures and

policies are audited by an

external auditor every

year. This year’s audit

will be held on Thursday

27 November and will be

carried out by Dr Martin

Vinnell who is the Director of

Safety at the University

Safety Office, and Roger

Badcock, Chief Technician.

Ask the Auditors

If you have any health and

safety concerns or questions

you would like to raise with

the Auditor, please speak to

Sue Barnes by 24 November.

Focus on Health & Safety

What YOU can do to Prevent Slips & Trips

November / December 2014 S e l w y n C o l l e g e , C a m b r i d g e

Selwyn Signal

Inside this issue:

How Secure is your

PC?

2

On My Desert Island 2

Christmas Countdown 3

25 Year Celebration 3

Pets Corner 3

Competition Winner 4

Staff Update 4

Selwyn Snapshots 4

Beware of Blackberry

Thumb

2

Selwyn Selfie 4

Selwyn’s Got Talent 4

1. 2.

3. 4.

5. 6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Accident Prevention Crossword

Crossword Clues

Across

1. Taking ___ is not following pro-

cedures.

3. ___ any tool before using it.

4. An ‘almost’ accident is called a

____ miss.

7. Report these to your Head of

Department.

8. After an accident you must make

a ___.

9. Missing guards are called unsafe

___.

10. Never leave materials on the ___

where they could become a trip

hazard.

Down

1. Who you report hazards to.

2. To do any job you must be ___.

5. Danger ___ are posted in hazard-

ous areas.

6. An unsafe ___ is careless behav-

iour.

Everyone has a responsibility for their own

health and safety and the safety of others.

To prevent trips and slips we ask all staff to:

●Clean up any spillages that you see, or

make the area safe and report it to your su-

pervisor or Head or Department, without

delay.

●Report damaged or uneven floors, worn or

frayed carpets and mats.

●Remove items from walkways or report

them to your Head of Department so that

someone doesn’t trip over them.

●Keep your work area tidy.

●Report all acci-

dents or near

misses promptly.

Your action could

prevent future acci-

dents.

●Tell your Head of

Department about

any situation that

you think may be

dangerous.

Is your laptop or computer (whether

at work or at home) password pro-

tected? Is your password really

secure?

Probably not according to our IT

Manager, Dave Johnstone. Popular

passwords are reported to be pass-

word, 12345, 11111, 987654321, and

QWERTY, which can all be decoded

by hackers in as little as 0.003 sec-

onds! See: http://splashdata.com/

press/worstpasswords2013.htm

You can check the strength of your pass-

words on this website: https://

www.microsoft.com/en-gb/security/pc-

security/password-checker.aspx

Dave advises you use a password con-

taining a mixture of letters, numbers and

capitals e.g. Orangesfor£0.99 or

ILik3PickledOn1ons and never give

your password out when asked, espe-

cially by emails claiming to be from your

bank, Hermes, or even the University

Computing Service, no matter how offi-

cial they look!

PAGE 2

How Secure is Your PC?

On My Desert Island

SELWYN SIGNAL

most tempting) to use their thumbs to

press the keys. Thumbs are less dexter-

ous that our other fingers and are not

designed to be in constant motion while

bent at an odd angle. The repetitive mo-

tion causes inflammation in the tendons,

the joints to ache and become stiff.

Symptoms

Symptoms include aching and throbbing

pain in the thumb or sometimes other

fingers and in the wrist. Experts predict

that the overuse and abuse of the thumb

joints may lead to arthritis in later years.

Treatment

For immediate relief take an inflamma-

tion-reducing pain reliever and reduce

text messaging

for a few hours

until the inflam-

mation subsides.

Prevention

To prevent flare-

ups, it's best to

stop texting alto-

gether for few

hours to give your thumbs a rest,

but if you must text, use your fore-

fingers, hold your phone with a

light grasp and straight wrists.

Don’t use mobile devices for long

periods of time.

‘BlackBerry thumb’ is a term given

to a form of repetitive strain injury

caused by frequent use of the thumb

to press buttons on smartphones,

tablets and other mobile devices.

The name comes from the Black-

berry brand of smart phones (other

makes are available!) although there

are similar conditions that have been

named from the use of other devices

such as ‘Wiiitis’, ‘Nintendinitis’, and

‘Playstation thumb’.

Why it Happens

Given the way mobile devices are

constructed, particularly their small

size, most users find it easiest (and

came in dancing to this record dressed in

sumo wrestler outfits, which had every-

one in stitches and I will never forget

Ollie’s face once he realised it was us!

Next year is Phillip’s 30th birthday sur-

prise party!!

My book would be ‘Old Traditional Gar-

dening’ by Percy Thrower. My father so

enjoyed his garden and won many prizes

over the years at the village garden

show. I have followed his love of gar-

dening and always feel close to him

while I’m in my garden.

My luxury item would have to be a

memory foam mattress—amazing tech-

nology for a wonderful night’s sleep.

Ready for a new day ☺

We asked Sue Jeffries to name three

things (a record, book and a luxury

or essential item) she couldn’t bear

to be without if stranded on a desert

island….

My record would be ‘Can’t touch

this’ by MC Hammer. My daughter-

in-law and I organised a fancy dress

party for my son Ollie’s 30th birth-

day. Mid-way through the party, an

announcement

was made that

three guests from

Japan had flown

over to celebrate

his birthday.

Myself and my

two other sons

Beware of ‘Blackberry Thumb’

National Tongue Twister Day

Sunday 9 November

Tongue twisters are light-hearted

phrases that seem simple enough

until you say them. The combina-

tion of the words and repetition of

sounds make it nearly impossible to

properly pronounce the entire

phrase, especially when you repeat

it very quickly. Try to wrap your

tongue around these twisters…..

Three free throws

Greek grapes

Bad money, mad bunny

Selfish shellfish

Irish wristwatch

SELWYN SIGNAL PAGE 3

25 Year Celebration

12 Days of Safety 12 Days of Safety

A take on a famous Christmas carol to

demonstrate some of the many health

and safety checks and systems we have

in place to ensure the College is a safe

place to work.

On the twelfth day of Christmas the

College gave to me ...

121212 Emergency light tests

111111 Risk assessments

101010 Weekly fire tests

999 Water treatments

888 Shower head cleanses

777 COSHH assessments

666 Training sessions

555 Fire drills

444 Safety goggles

333 PAT tests

222 Toolbox talks

And an audit by the University.

Christmas Countdown Are you a last minute shopper? Have

you still got some Christmas shopping

to do? Would you like to raise money

for the College while you shop?

With only 8 weeks to

the big day, if you

are intending to do

your Christmas

shopping on-line,

remember that the

College receives commission on all

Amazon sales if you access their web-

site via the link from the College web-

site: http://www.selwynalumni.com/

All money raised will go to a student

support fund.

Christmas Card Challenge

Last year staff in the Development Of-

fice emailed a festive e-Christmas card

to their colleagues as an alternative

(and perhaps greener?) alternative to

sending expensive Christmas cards.

We thought it would be fun to issue a

challenge to staff to create an e-

Christmas card and send it to your

colleagues using the group email ad-

dress all-staff@sel.cam.ac.uk.

Staff Christmas Party

A reminder that the deadline for tick-

ets is Friday 14 November.

Christmas Drinks and

Charity Raffle

A Charity Christmas Raffle will once

again be held during the Bursar’s

Christmas Drinks at 12 noon on

Wednesday 17 December in the New

SCR. Donations for prizes can be left

with staff in the Bursary. There prom-

ises to be more prizes than last year!

Christmas Lunch

Catering staff will be cooking Christ-

mas Lunch during the last few days

before the College closes for Christ-

mas. This will be offered to all mem-

bers of staff, including those who

would not normally be entitled to

lunch. Further details to follow.

Christmas Teaser

In the song ‘The Twelve Days

of Christmas‘ how many gifts

are given over the twelve

days? (Answer on page 4)

Pets Corner Inca is a Cockapoo, now 2 years old.

Her favourite pastime is retrieving

balls and playing with other Cocka-

poos and particularly her friend

Mini!

She insists on sleeping beside my bed

and tries very hard to get on the bed -

she sometimes succeeds! Her favour-

ite treat is dried fish skins.

Sadly, she is frightened of fireworks

and other loud noises but we are

working on improving this. Gina Vivian-Neal

Sally joined the College in

June 1989.

Even Santa has to

pay attention to

health and safety!

Staff gathered

to celebrate

Sally Bird’s

25 Years’

Service after

the Coffee

Morning on

24 September.

The Master presented Sally

with two engraved tumblers

commemorating her 25 years’

service.

New Appointment

Andrew Flather has been permanently

appointed as the Development Officer,

after standing in as temporary Develop-

ment Officer when Beccy Battle left.

Leavers

Emma Gait has resigned from her post as

the Choir Administrative Assistant.

Retirement

John Traynier retired in October after

serving 13 years as a Kitchen Porter.

Vacancies

We’re recruiting for two Kitchen Porters,

a part-time Chapel Choir Administrator

and a Relief Porter. Further details can

be found on the website.

New Faces

We welcome three new Catering Assis-

tants Robert Jones

Elzbieta Midor

Ashlekea Smith

Giovanni

Zappa has

joined the De-

velopment

Office as a Da-

tabase Admin-

istrator on a

temporary contract.

Staff Update

Selwyn Snapshots

On each new day all the gifts

are given. This makes a total

of 364 gifts given (counting 12

partridges, 22 turtle doves...

etc.) There are 376 gifts if you

count the pear tree as a sepa-

rate gift from the partridge.

Competition Winner The winner of the competition to win a set

of colour LED bicycle lights was Tony Cross

who correctly identified that

26 October was the date

which officially marked the

end of British Summer Time.

Congratulations Tony!

PAGE 4 SELWYN SIGNAL

College Diary

November

11 Remembrance Day

19 Selwyn’s Got Talent

(Chadwick Room, the

exhibition will be open

for 3 days from

10 am—7 pm daily

December

5 Full Term ends

Snowball

(Reduced lunch service)

7 Carol Service

13 Staff Christmas Party

17 Bursar’s Christmas

Drinks and Charity

Christmas Raffle

24 Christmas & New

Year Closure (the Col-

lege re-opens on Mon-

day 5 January 2015.)

Happy Christmas

Everyone!

1 Admissions Inter-

views (through to 19

December)

This Selwyn Selfie is from Matt Rowe

standing in front of the College Crest in

the Servery.

Please send in your

Selwyn Selfies! Just

remember that it

must feature the

College crest some-

where in the photo-

graph, but you can

be as creative and

imaginative as you

like.

I couldn’t

resist taking

this photo of a

rainbow

above our 21

and 23 West

Road hostels,

but sadly I

couldn’t find the pot of gold!

Calling all photographers—please

send in your photographs of the Col-

lege for future issues of the Selwyn

Signal!

Accident Prevention

Crossword Answers

Across

1. Shortcuts 3. Inspect

4. Near 7. Hazards

8. Report 9. Conditions

10. Floor

Down

1. Supervisor 2. Trained

5. Signs 6. Act

Selwyn Selfie

Selwyn’s Got Talent

Calling all

staff with an

artistic streak.

If you can

paint, draw,

cook, sew, or

have any

other hidden talent, there’s still time to

book space at the exhibition (free of

charge) or submit photographs for the

photography competition. Admission to

the exhibition is £1 and the proceeds will

go to EACH (East Anglian Children’s

Hospice).