Dear Friends,

               I’m writing to let you know about an organization called “Think Before You Bounce” that some friends and I are forming to help bring awareness to the risks associated with trampoline parks.  I know of several kids (and parents) who have been injured at trampoline parks and it’s clear to me that trampoline parks are very dangerous places, much more dangerous than residential or single trampolines.  (Full disclosure:  Our family owns a trampoline…with a safety net.)  Please read the quote in the press release below about the specific dangers of trampoline parks from safety consultant William Avery:  it is chilling.  Trampoline parks are a new and largely unregulated business, just like bungee jumping once was.  About 100,000 people are injured every year on single trampolines at private residences; unfortunately, no one has the data about trampoline parks because they are so new. I’m writing to ask you to “like” our organization’s Facebook page because we’re trying to get the word out. If you have stories about trampoline park injuries, please e-mail them to me and I will post them to our Facebook page.  Please also feel free to forward this e-mail to friends.

Sincerely,

Tom

p.s.  If you don’t know what trampoline parks are, there’s a photo of one below and a full list can be found at our Facebook page. 

p.p.s.  I’ve also included below some facts about trampoline parks, as well as our press release, which should be going out in the next day or two. 

Trampoline Park Safety Summary (from Think Before You Bounce Facebook page)

According the American Association of Pediatrics, the two major trampoline injury sources are:

• Jumping with more than one person at a time.
• Landing improperly.

Trampoline parks amplify these dangers in a few major ways.

• Multiple people can jump on the same trampoline.

o   Since these parks are busy on weekends, multiple jumpers can happen many times over the course of a single day.

• The possibility of landing improperly is increased as people jump between multiple trampolines that can have different surface tensions.
• Jumpers might accidently land on the spring-laden trampoline borders if they are not properly covered

In terms of regulation, trampoline parks are currently in a regulatory no-man’s land—they are part amusement park, part gym.  As a result, they are generally only governed by local building codes. This is worlds away from the regulation of other fun and potentially dangerous activities such as ski slopes, rock climbing walls, and bungee jumping. Those activities often have state regulations allowing interested parties to safely participate and we hope to have the same for trampoline parks. These regulations would govern:

• Design and layout of the parks
• Encouraging risk-awareness signage
• Safety training for employees
• Other factors designed to make trampoline parks safe and fun

***************************************************************************************************************************  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Think Before You Bounce” Promotes Trampoline Park Safety

SAN FRANCISCO, California (August 24, 2011) – Think Before You Bounce, a group dedicated to promoting increased trampoline park safety, is beginning a campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of trampoline parks. To get the word out, they are launching a Facebook page. 

Trampoline parks are new, massive structures, growing around the country and largely unregulated. They are less regulated than similar high risk sports such as bungee jumping, skiing, or rock climbing precisely because they are new. Although trampolines parks are fun and a growing trend, there are serious risks to consider before participating, authorizing kids to bounce or hosting a party at a trampoline park.

Approximately 100,000 people are injured on trampolines every year in the US.  No statistics are yet available about injuries at trampoline parks, a by-product of the newness of the industry and the lack of regulation. The largest causes of traditional trampoline injury are bouncing with more than one person and landing improperly. These risks are only multiplied in trampoline parks, where many people bounce or jump in the same general space and they can bump into each other.

Nationally recognized amusement industry safety consultant, William Avery, after reviewing the trampoline park concept and after an inclusive but not exhaustive study of safety rules associated with this type of activity said the following:  “Trampoline parks are like planning a disaster. It’s not if, but when these type of parks will generate fractures and quadriplegics. I frankly can’t believe that these organizations have been able to secure insurance.”

The American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) considers traditional trampolines to be so dangerous that they only recommend their use in supervised training programs like gymnastics and diving. They expressly state that traditional trampolines should not be used at home or even at physical education classes in school, unless supervised by competent personnel.

Think Before You Bounce’s mission is to make trampoline parks safer through awareness, regulation and design. The group was founded in San Francisco, California in 2011.  To find out more, please visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/Think-Before-You-Bounce/215155945180376.

Contact:
Tom Paper
tom@websterpacific.com
415-733-9740

###

Reminds me of Georg Clayson and The Richest Man in Babylon.  Isn’t it time we got back to basic financial values, like living within our means, as individuals and as a country?

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• I’m here because of Katherine Kennedy
  • Like many of you, I heard Katherine and her wonderful laugh long before I met her
  • Katherine and I shared a common passion and caring and belief about the “formula” to form responsible adults:
    • love, integrity and discipline, as well as the value of an experience
• I’m from Minnesota, spent my summers paddling the lakes of the Boundary Waters, all the way north to the arctic circle, as well as one trip across the great lakes
• Today I manage a business strategy consulting firm and we are regularly hiring
  • One of my favorite questions is to ask is, “tell me about your motivation…when or where or how did you find your motivation?”  what gets you up in the morning?
  • I don’t get to give my answer to this question very often, but it’s always seemed relevant to why I support summership
  • I found my motivation one hot summer day, paddling across a glassy lake, looking at a horizon three miles ahead that never seemed to get any closer, my mind semi-numb from the monotonous motion and dull aches in my shoulders
    • Canoeing in my early years was always something of a chore, something I actually didn’t like that much while I was doing it, but liked a lot more afterwards, when I was safe at home lying on the couch watching tv
    • But somewhere in the midst of the monotony and beauty of paddling across that lake, I realized that if I could make it across this lake, then I could probably make it across all sorts of “hard” tasks back at home – and so I started daydreaming about all the things I wanted to accomplish when I got back home…and then I achieved those goals
  • So I support Summersearch because of that daydream, because my hunch is that summersearchers, who are born to situations infinitely more difficult than mine, will, somewhere in their experience, have that daydream moment, when they figure out why or how or simply that they can guide their lives and the lives of others to better shores.
• Another reason I support summersearch is because of the purity or strength of its mission, combined with the fact, as I’ve heard it, that the mission is carried out in the actions of its staff and leaders.  What is that mission?  Well, I read the website, but that was too complicated.  Here’s how I interpret the core of the summersearch mission:  No free lunch.  Work hard.  Help others.  Merit is rewarded.  You can’t get in to summersearch if you are not both of need and show sufficient merit or promise.  Summersearch is selective.  I was searching last night for an analogous organization to summersearch and, because I have young kids, I was drawn to this (light saber).  Summersearch has some similarities to the Jedi Academy.  Jedi Knights, as any five year-old will tell you, are some seriously cool dudes.  They live by a code, they work hard, help others and are incredibly talented…and it’s really hard to be both selected as a Jedi in training (they call that a padawan) and to become a Jedi Knight (Anakin never made it).
• Needless to say, I’m a huge fan of summersearch (and Star Wars) and, although the strength of the summersearch mission poses some challenges, precisely because it is selective and more kids cannot be included, I still thoroughly support summersearch.  So my view is that if you can figure out how to build more and more relationships with donors, like the relationship I have with Katherine, where the donor can sense that the mission is real, or, as Katherine and Lissa say, drink the cool-aid, then I know you will be successful.

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My friend, Hester Rumberg, has written a remarkable book –it’s about sailing, love, courage and remarkable resilience …

TEN DEGREES OF RECKONING

Hester will be speaking and reading from the book on May 14th.  I do hope you will attend and FORWARD THIS TO YOUR FRIENDS, because it is an amazing, and beautifully written, true story. I can’t do it justice in this email, so please look at her web site:

www.tendegreesofreckoning.com

“Ten Degrees of Reckoning: The True Story of a Family’s Love and the Will to Survive” by Hester Rumberg (Amy Einhorn/Putnam, $24.95). A Seattle author tells the story of Judith and Michael Sleavin who, while on a round-the-world sailboat voyage with their two children, were hit by a merchant ship off the coast of New Zealand. Only Judith survived.

Take a look at some of the readers’ reviews – it’s a book I couldn’t put down, and neither could the reviewers.

Reviews of the book have been enthusiastic. The Book of the Month Club has chosen Ten Degrees of Reckoning as nonfiction January 2009 main selection; the American Booksellers Association has chosen to include Ten Degrees of Reckoning in its Independent Booksellers Next list of “Great Reads from Booksellers You Trust” for March 2009.

Here are where the readings/signings will be held, and if you go, tell her Ann sends her love!

San Francisco, CA

May 14, 2009

Books, Inc in the Marina

 2251 Chestnut Street

San Francisco, CA 94123

(415) 931-3633

7:30 p.m.

BEST CALL AHEAD TO CONFIRM TIME

Ann  Phillips

arthurphillips.info

tendegreesofreckoning.com

www.ironrangejewishheritage.org

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Cannibalization is also generally not a good thing.  People with a social conscience don’t particularly like the thought of eating our own. 

However, it seems to me that in today’s world, we need to get a bit more comfortable with both words.  Nationalization seems to be what is needed for our banks.  Cannibalization is what seems to be needed for all the industrial companies that can’t make it.  The bankruptcy system is here for a reason.  It is a means for renewal of businesses that are not sustainable.  Nationalizing industrials companies will lead to socialism and survival of the neediest.  Letting industrial companies be “cannibalized,” or eaten up by various entities for their assets, is the only way that true renewal can be achieved.

Let me be clear:  if we could let our banks go bankrupt without jeopardizing the global financial system, I would favor that outcome.  Problem is that bank bankruptcies will have a catastrophic impact.  Kind of like an ice age, imagine a global ice age for credit.  Not good.

The two articles below from the New York Times are advocating weak banks being nationalized and weak industrial companies being cannabilized.

OPINION   | February 23, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist:  Banking on the Brink
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Why not just go ahead and nationalize? Remember, the longer we live with zombie banks, the harder it will be to end the economic crisis.

OPINION   | February 22, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist:  Start Up the Risk-Takers
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Precious public money should focus on investing in a new generation of innovative companies, not on bailing out the losers.