The 15(A) Chennai Seminar was held this year at MGM Resort on 13th & 14th of July, 2015.

The gathering commenced with brisk registration as scheduled in the morning of 13/July. Once the customary introductions were completed we started with our sessions for the first day.

Mr. Fukuzawa San covered the topic on “Injury Prevention”, based on incidents and near misses within the KLSM fleet. Fukuzawa San, through his presentation, described various events relating to recent cases, and lessons learnt from those, specially the injuries sustained by the seafarers. Motive of this presentation was to encourage awareness by following safety procedures, and to establish behavior based safety on-board.
  
At the conclusion of the presentation, the delegates had a short tea break.

Post tea session began with a presentation from Capt. Bhaumik San (KLSM Tokyo),

Capt. Bhaumik San’s presentation covered the topic of “Vetting Inspection Observations”. He elaborated on the importance of keeping the vessel ready for inspection all the time, by illustrating recent observations and their effect on the company scorecard.  Another very relevant and interesting topic covered during the session was - How to Carry out Incident Investigation - which was presented by Capt. Juvale San, stretching out the root cause of Incident and he explained the procedures for identifying the root cause. The PPT was followed by a short exercise, and the participation from the delegates was full of energy.

Soon after completion of these two presentations, it was lunch time, and everyone proceeded for lunch.

Post lunch, the seminar proceedings resumed, with a group photograph, followed by the address by the President Capt. Toshikazu Saito San. He was quite appreciative for the contributions being made by KLSM Officers, towards decreasing number of Observations, and towards maintaining better than industry averages on KPI’s. Capt Saito San thanked all the delegates, for their continuous support to achieve the target of Zero Observation, Zero Accidents, and Zero Injuries in times to come.

Soon after, the rest of the session until the end of day 1 was devoted to CMS (Competence Management System), by Capt. Mathur San. A total of 14 groups of 5-6 officers each were formed, and each group was able to take first hand lessons on this in-house developed tutorials, by on-line access directly to the server in Singapore, making use of the laptop that was arranged for each group. This made the learning very convenient, and easy to understand. There was active participation be all groups, as well as enthusiasm amongst the participants who came up with a lot of queries to clarify their doubts. Once the Q & A and interactive learning, the day 1 concluded and everyone left the classroom – to be ready for the evening party.

The cocktails & dinner along with officers’ families and children, and entertainment such as traditional bharatnatyam, fire dance, magic-show and fortune teller was organized at the spacious lawn, and everybody enjoyed the evening. Children were most active, and enjoyed the company of the friendly Charlie Chaplin, who enthralled them with his witty acts and tricks.

The second day of the Seminar started off with TTX Exercise, a thoroughly engrossing activity and almost real experience of Emergency Procedure & TTX Explanation – conducted by Capt Bhaumik San. This exercise was conducted so as to demonstrate to all delegates as to what goes on in a real situation, and how one should act in those difficult times. Different Teams were formed to represent the action at shore side, including the Media Personnel – who were supposed to, and did, present obstacles in the handling of emergency situation.

At the end of the exercise, the Team which was assessed to be the best, and who tackled the emergency situation better than others Teams, was declared the winner and were awarded the prize by the President, Capt Saito San.

A tea break followed the TTX exercise. Transport Arrangements were made for the families to get away from their rooms, and go shopping to T.Nagar area, and make use of the opportunity of visit to Chennai.

After the Tea Break, the delegates separated in two groups – one comprising of Deck Officers, and the other forming Engineer Officers. Deck Officers were presented with a PPT on Mooring Incident Case study, by Capt. Bhaumik San (KLSM-TYO), whereas the Engineering Group was  given the task of Machinery Incident Investigation & Case Study – conducted by Mr. Saji Paul (KLSM-TYO).

This session was followed by Lunch Break.

Capt Juvale San resumed after the break, with a presentation on ECDIS to Deck Officers, while Mr Saji Paul continued his session with Engineers, covering Machinery Incident Investigation & Case study.

Then, it was Case Study VDR (Voyage Data Recorder) Analysis by Capt. Bhaumik San for Deck Officers, which highlighted the importance of this device for identification of the cause, for an accident. At the same time Mr. Sunish San took up another Case study, Machinery incident investigation & Workshop for the Engineers.

With the afternoon session completed, it was time for a cup of Tea and be ready for the last session for the day, as well as for the seminar. Capt Bhavin Upadhyay, our sailing Master, shared his on-board experiences with the delegates, and how he himself managed stress. Ch-Engr Mr Santosh Kattimani then shared his secrets for good health, and importance + benefits of achieving fitness, not only physical, but also mental fitness.

 The “Open Forum” was the next on schedule, and the top management was able to gather very useful inputs from the interactive session. Delegates had to be prodded and encouraged to share their views and voice their opinion, suggestion, grievances and any other matter which they could suggest for making their life better – on board, as well as ashore.

The concluding speech was by Mr. N. Watanabe San (K-line Tokyo MHRG), thanking everyone for their presence and cheered them for their excellent performance onboard. Distribution of Loyalty Awards and Participation Certificates, followed the concluding speech, and the President Capt Saito San handed out those to all delegates.

A closing address was given by Capt. Koji Higashijima San (C.E.O & M.D) KLSM-Mumbai, who took the opportunity to thank everyone for having spared their precious time from vacations, to attend this event.

The Cocktails & Dinner followed, into the night – the night before everyone had to fly back to their hometowns, in the morning of next day.