The American Rental Association (ARA) has launched the Safe Tenting Standard, a program focused on event safety and certified training aimed at 20,000 tent installers nationwide.
At a recent news conference at Party Reflections in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Moline-based ARA outlined the rationale for the Safe Tenting Standard program, the research involved in developing it, and many different pieces of the program. Tent rental operators and tent manufacturers were on hand in support of the initiative.
The ARA is an international trade association for owners of equipment and event rental businesses and the manufacturers and suppliers of construction/industrial, general tool and party/event rental equipment. ARA members, which include more than 11,500 rental businesses and more than 1,000 manufacturers and suppliers, are located in every U.S. state and more than 44 countries worldwide.
In March, ARA announced that it will be moving its headquarters out of the Quad Cities to Texas to be closer to its business associates.
“ARA has been building safety and training resources for the event industry for decades but now we are doubling down on our efforts. The Safe Tenting Standard is an unrivaled program,” the association’s CEO Tony Conant said in a news release. “What tent installers do is a craft, a trade, and it is our job to protect them.”
As far as what the program means for the industry, Allan Elium, project manager for Party Reflections’ Greensboro, North Carolina location, said the biggest positive is “bringing our two worlds together so we’re not constantly butting heads. We want to do a safe event, the fire marshals want us to set up a safe event. The more we show that we are trying to do it the right way, the more they will trust our expertise.”
The Safe Tenting Standard includes ballasting calculators, ground testing tools, emergency evacuation plans, site assessment forms, online and hands-on training and more to ensure that tent crews are operating safely and precisely for their safety and the safety of customers and communities. The program is intended to be a self-regulation standard for the tent industry.
“Our livelihoods as event rental businesses are dependent on people gathering safely,” ARA President-Elect and the L&A Tents owner Brian Richardson said in the release. “The industry was transformed in the last 30 years. What we’re doing today is light years beyond the tents we were putting up in 1985.”
Mr. Richardson added: “It’s serious work that requires serious training and attention to detail. We all know that any event where there is a tent failure is a reflection on all of us, so I’m urging everyone in our industry to operate by the Safe Tenting Standard.”
At the standard’s announcement, James Meyers, chief fire marshal for the Charlotte Fire Department, discussed the importance of partnership between first responders and event rental companies for public safety. In addition. ARA’s proprietary Ground Testing Tool also was demonstrated at the news conference.
For more information on the Safe Tenting Standard, visit www.safetenting.com.
