​President’s Message, May 2021
 
The last twelve months has been strange and difficult for all of us. I’m pretty sure I don’t need to list all of the struggles our region has experienced. Because of the uncertainty around what in-person events will look like in October, we made the decision to hold a virtual safety conference this fall. Normally, we need to make financial commitments in February and March for in-person venues. With the conditions being so uncertain, it simply did not warrant the risk. For those of you that remember our Safety Committee University last fall, we will include it as a track for our safety conference in October. We are planning on holding an awards ceremony, keynotes, and pre-conference PDCs. Our conference chair, Mike Hill, is leading the charge on getting the details put together. Please mark your calendars for this event, which will be held on October 19, 20,& 21. We hope to release more details about the event soon.
 
Another event that is coming up very quickly is the May 12 Total Worker Health 101 Professional Development Workshop. At the time I write this letter, we have about 20 seats remaining. This is a great opportunity. After not holding a PDC last fall because of the unique challenges that 2020 offered, we are glad to offer this event.
 
Also, don’t forget that the Safety Committee University content on our website is still free for the time being. Please take advantage of these resources that our chapter offers you and your organization. Please stay safe and have a great 2021!
 
 
Stay safe!

​David Hanson, CSP
President, ASSP – Southern Oregon Chapter
Senior Safety Management Consultant, SAIF Corporation
 
David has an expertise building dynamic safety teams and developing high-performing safety cultures. He spent 18 years at Timber Products Company as a Supervisor and Safety Coordinator and facilitated continued certification into Oregon OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program (VPP).

​David Hanson
Southern Oregon Chapter President
 
I wasn’t always in the safety profession. When I was a teenager, I remember working for a sub-contractor during a summer job. One of the sites we were working for was addressing some serious injuries that they had recently. They began to put up signs and a large traffic light that announced how they were doing at safety. I remember a mannequin that had bandages representing the injuries their employees had suffered recently. I think many of their awareness efforts had limited effectiveness, but they had some new rules that I think were potentially very effective. One of these was a new rule requiring eye protection in the aircraft hangars as a condition of employment. I remember thinking this was a wise and practical measure, and even us contractors were given adequate safety glasses that we could use to comply with the new prudent rules. I had no problems wearing them, as required, and appreciated management’s effort to protect my eyes. I bought into the new safety initiatives. You might say, I was an early adopter. So far so good.
 
Generally, in the break room we removed the safety glasses, and they were not required there. There was a long hallway between the breakroom and the hangar. This hallway was basically an office-type hallway and did not contain any acute eye hazards that I could tell. My understanding was that I did not need to wear the glasses until I got to the hangar. I was on my way back to work, heading down this hallway to the hangar. I was wearing my safety glasses on my forehead and fully intended to place them back over my eyes before I entered the hangar. Walking the opposite direction was a manager that had never spoken to me before. He immediately pointed his finger and yelled at me to “get your safety glasses on now!”  I complied with the demand, but this event also signaled the end of my support for his safety program.
 
One big lesson I learned was this: how we present our safety initiatives to employees is just as important as what the initiatives are. To this day, I wonder if that manager ever found out why his approach to managing safety was not as successful as it could’ve been. His intention to make sure employees were using the best practices to stay safe on the job was admirable. His approach was to gain robotic compliance from his workforce by shouting at them and humiliating them in front of others.
 
Our efforts can be so much more effective if we work harder to include front line employees in making these safety initiatives a positive effort. Often, we think about a safety program as being the program implemented by management, and certainly that is true. It always helps to remember that employees are the #1 beneficiary of the safety program. The true owners (stakeholders) of the safety program are the workers that make safety happen every day, every hour, and every second on the front line where work is happening. If we lose cooperation from those key stakeholders… no amount of yelling and pointing will make anyone safer in the long run.
 
David Hanson, CSP