The 16th annual US Open Forklift Rodeo & Safety Expo is scheduled for 29-30 October under sponsorship of the Springfield/Clark County Safety Council (SCCSC) and Forkliftaction.com.

A Jacksonville, Florida warehouse of a global foods company may send a team to this year's competition in Springfield, according to Richard E Higgins, the event's guru, long-time behind-the-scenes organiser and author of an instructional manual on course layouts, possible individual and team events and pre-competition promotion.

Currently, Higgins is discussing opportunities for 2010 US Open mini-exhibits and presence with other potential co-sponsors in the corporate community. The goal is to increase prize levels for the winning forklift operators and continue to build the industry's awareness of the US Open and related safety-oriented competitions around the world.

Higgins (Forkliftaction.com News #430) was a founding member and the first chairman of the SCCSC in 1994 and was instrumental in 1995 in starting a local forklift rodeo that now functions as the US Open.

Typically, Higgins and his team use a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet-based scoring system although he considers the manual posting of scores to have some benefits.

Higgins is a senior safety trainer and territory manager in the Springfield branch of Forklift Training Systems (Forkliftaction.com News #457).

Eric Zumbrin of KTH Parts Industries Inc in Saint Paris, Ohio was crowned champion of both the overall rodeo and the masters' division at the 2009 US Open Forklift Rodeo in Springfield (Forkliftaction.com News #435).