My friendship with Chris Lawrence started about 12 years ago while serving on the ASSE (at that time) Executive Committee. Chris was such a kind and generous mentor to me, helping to provide guidance for my career goals and advice through any crazy situation that my safety management work threw at me. Chris has served our Southern Oregon Chapter for all those years in various positions on the committee as well as Region 1 ASSP and Society as a whole.
Chris was nominated for this award by someone who works closely with him in his role as safety manager at Boise Cascade, Lori Austin. In a recent discussion with Lori, she stated that he is the most caring and kind safety manager that she has ever known. He truly wants to keep workers safe and that genuine caring shines through everything he does. She was so excited to nominate him based on how much Chris means to her, and even more thrilled to find out that he won this prestigious award.

Please join me in congratulating Southern Oregon’s newest Safety Professional of the year!

Michael Hill, CSP, SAIF Corporation
Past President and Award Committee Chair


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Many people I spoke with agreed that this was the best Leadership Development Workshop that we’ve ever had. We had a feeling it would be, based on past sessions that Robin has delivered and as we noticed this one filling up like no other. 96 people registered for this great event and there were so many powerful nuggets and tips for successfully leading and communicating with a team. Here are just a few of the great take-aways that I gleaned from Robin:

• 70% of people say that they would rather have a nice boss than a 10% raise in pay!
• People don’t leave jobs, they leave managers.
• You only stress about what you care about. Instead of saying I’m so stressed about something, learn to say that I care about this.
• When we stress about something, our sympathetic system releases 9 stress hormones that cause everything from headaches, tension, digestive upset, fatigue, joint pain, sleep problems, anxiety, depression, and anger.
• How many people value their work but are no longer whistling on the way to work? It’s because they have too much stress hormones.
• To get out of constant stress, we have to learn to recognize when we are living in our “survival brain” and through thinking and breathing skills move to our “thinking brain”.
• When another person is toxic and rages, you can do slow breathing and stay calm. You can actually change them through limbic resonance.
• “If you’re in a leadership role, you represent everyone’s unfinished mom and dad issues!”
• Words have very little communication value. What impacts our staff the most is tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures, and mood.
• “Do you know what you sound like when you see someone you like and are glad to see them? Work to be like that all the time!”
• “Every story creates a feeling. What story could you tell yourself when you don’t like it?”

 
Michael Hill, CSP, SAIF Corporation
Past President

 
Another successful Safety and Health conference is under our belt. Of course, the sincerest thank-yous to everyone who helped in any and every way. So many of you helped in so many ways. Throughout the conference it was clear to me that our Southern Oregon chapter, OR-OSHA, planning committee, our speakers, room monitors, sponsors, exhibitors, and host organizations made the conference a huge success. There was a moment on Wednesday when Jennifer Self at Ashland Hills asked me about where our attendees come from. As I described our attendees to her, it became more remarkable to me as to how diverse a group we serve at our conference. Our conference can reach employees at every single level within a company. We reach employees with messages relevant to the newest frontline laborer to the most senior executives within a company. This is not usually a simple task. But our community does it regularly and effectively. Over and over.   
 
Take, for example, our lifesaving award event on Tuesday. What can a new employee learn from the lessons learned at Sherm’s Food 4 Less last December? What can a top executive learn from the same event? Safety issues and topics transcend industry categories and work roles. The same principles of leadership, accountability, learning teams, and hazard mitigation approaches apply to any organization. The specifics vary from industry to industry. However, the universal challenge that our conference tackles head-on is the very attitude toward the safety challenges we all face.
 
As we wrap up another conference cycle, we begin another. This next conference will mark thirty years of safety training excellence for our region. We are already beginning to assemble our conference planning committee for next year. I invite you to join us as we pour it on for the thirtieth time.
 
To learn more about our conference, visit our website at: www.soassp.org/conference.
 
David Hanson, CSP, SAIF Corporation
Chapter Vice President and Conference Chair

The weather is changing.Fall is arriving and winter is just around the corner.The month of October was the Great Shake Out – earthquake preparedness.This is a time of change and a time of preparation.Thinking about this reminds me of a good tool for safety and a truly great tool for safety committees. Since we are now in the fourth quarter of the year, maybe now is a good time to start an evaluation of our safety programs. November is a good time to look at the last 11 or 12 months and consider the accomplishments and shortcomings of our safety program or safety committees.We can use this time to look at safety incidents to determine what adverse trends are present. We can look at what we intended to accomplish but didn’t; what “speed bumps” got in the way of accomplishment? We can start reviewing those actions that were successful and those actions that weren’t. Then make adjustments as needed.
 
In essence, a safety committee should be compelled to evaluate the year’s outcomes whether they were non-starters, ineffective, or extremely successful. A review of trends from incident data can help guide future actions. An understanding of the “depth of impact” of our safety culture promotion efforts is a start towards continuous improvement. Knowing what succeeded and why can help shape future efforts. It can help build a safety plan.  
 
A high-functioning safety committee will conduct a review of the year in safety, and then build a plan for the coming year. The review should include a statement of what occurred in terms of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and potential threats.From there, a safety committee can decide what to keep in the program and what to adjust. The committee should take the activities they plan to keep and/or adjust, and add them to additional items that are brainstormed for the coming year. This then becomes the safety plan for success that will be evaluated again next year.
 
There is one very key aspect to the safety plan: When a safety committee figures out what the results were, and then generates a new plan in relation to those results, the safety committee begins to better understand trends and what is or is not working. If the safety committee presents the findings of the review, and the intended plans for the future to leadership, the safety committee is often viewed as functioning at a higher level. Leadership tends to provide more support for such committees.
 
So, take the time to evaluate your program and generate an improvement plan for the new year. It will set everyone involved on the same path with an understanding that supports continuous improvement - which is the language of true leadership!
 
Enjoy the season change we are about to see, and plan for a new season in your safety program!
 
Chris Lawrence
President, ASSP – Southern Oregon Chapter
 
​With over 20 years in occupational safety and health, Chris Lawrence is a retired US Air Force Safety Professional who is the current Regional Safety Manager for Boise Cascade.