President's Message

 
It’s a new chapter year!
 
There are so many things going on in our world that it seems like time is just a blur. While still with us, the response to the coronavirus has stabilized, and we are now back to in-person meetings! We had a great safety conference last October with some great speakers—although the bulk of the activities were online. Despite all challenges of operating in such an environment, our chapter has done well and pulled through.    
 
Surely, we must recognize our members for staying the course and adapting to an ever-changing safe work environment. Changes by the Center for Disease Control, the Oregon Health Authority, government regulations, personnel changes, etc. have all been a challenge to navigate. The flow of change seemed endless. Our members have gone through a lot, and it is such a blessing to see how they have succeeded.   
 
As we roll into the new chapter year, I want to thank those who have stepped up to continue the chapter legacy of success! Take a look at this list of outstanding people who have taken on roles to support this chapter and its members. 
 

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I can see that our chapter is in good hands for the future! Without question, this team was handed an outstanding chapter that was headed up by these people who gave it their all:  David Hanson was the back-to-back president whose efforts really did carry our chapter through the pandemic. There are no words that will do his commitment, work ethic, and success justice. Patti McGuire, this year’s vice president, held the treasurer position for many years. Again, as with all of the team, there are no words to do her service justice. She is an amazing person, and I can say this for sure: We have not had a better treasurer and supporter of our chapter. Mike Hill will still be doing meticulous work on the 2022 safety conference just as he has done for several years now with past conferences. What an inspiration. He has done such an awesome job at running our conferences, you would think it was his profession! Yet, like all board members, he volunteers his time! Kyle Valley did such a great job of keeping the chapter newsletter going and getting personnel involved. It may be like the proverbial herding of cats, but he stayed the course and knocked it out of the park. (That was for him—many of you may not know that he was once a professional baseball player!) Our monthly programs were still first-rate because we have a true professional named Jen Killpack who was the program director. Again, the professionalism she brought to the table was nothing short of outstanding. Karrie Hyde Bogart was running our chapter operations effort and did such a great job of jumping into that role despite being in another challenging volunteer role. Again, when I get beat down by the mental rigors of day-to-day safety, I think of folks like her, and I find myself being inspired to step up even more. We had some vacancies in positions throughout the year and we found some excellent people to stand in the gap. These outstanding professionals (Jeff Mook, Nilda Martinez, and Shyra Vaughn) helped the board finish the year in style! And the good news: these three awesome individuals volunteered to stay on for this new chapter year. 
 
As you can tell, I really do admire all these dedicated professionals! It takes dedicated folks such as them to make this chapter a success, but it takes really special people to stay the course when you consider the challenges we have seen over the last couple of years.
 
When you are out and about and see any these folks, please take the time to help us recognize them for their efforts. They deserve it without hesitation.
 
Chris Lawrence
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