PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE – JANUARY 2022
Greetings Safety Professionals,
Happy New Year!
We are off to great New Year and we appreciate everyone’s partnership with our NC ASSP Chapter. It has been a great rewarding privilege to lead our Chapter the last six months. This Executive Committee is one of the best that I have ever worked with and they continue to bring excellent ideas to the forefront to make our Chapter excel.
This week the winter season reared its head to remind us that the mild temperatures we enjoyed in late December were unprecedented. January has turned bitterly cold and it’s a reminder that we must always be prepared for winter storms, natural disasters, and the growing effect of the latest COVID-19 progression. Yesterday, North Carolina shattered history with a new record report with 20,770 positive cases. NC DHHS reports a 31.8% positivity rate from testing alone. One out of three test are positive. Medical experts have stated that this trend will continue through out the month and will hopefully subside in February.
Join us next Thursday, January 13th 2022, at 12:00 noon for our next Technical presentation with Scott Mabry, Assistant Deputy Commissioner of NCDOL. We are delighted to have Scott speak to us about the challenges of compliance enforcement in this new normal. Click here to register.
Please know that I, among others, share your concerns and emphasize with you during this very difficult time. We are all in this together and as each wave passes we learn more about adaptive methods to battle this unusual virus. We need to continue to band together and share our experiences with one another so we can continue to move forward during this bright new year.
Stay positive, stay safe, and stay warm!
My thoughts and sincere appreciation are with you all!
Robin
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE – DECEMBER 2021
Greetings Safety Professionals,
As valued members of our Society, we would like to extend our gratitude for everyone’s outstanding service for our profession this year. Fruitful growth within our Chapter has been abundant and this is a testament to your commitment to safety achievements within our great State.
We have a new State Budget for the next couple of years. This is monumental to the success of various programs that will directly or indirectly affect many employers over the next budget cycle. This is also the largest budget document in the history of our State. We are happy to share a CliffsNotes version if any clarifications are needed.
Would you like to volunteer for a role within our Chapter? We are looking for a few members to fill several roles for the 2022-2023 program year. It’s not hard and we have a wonderful supportive network within our Executive Committee. Contact us for more information.
We will be continuing to share more next month about the proposal for the house of delegates that is up for vote in early 2022.
Please join us for our next presentation on December 9th, 2021, at 12 p.m. EST. Labor Commissioner Josh Dobson will address our Chapter members and discuss North Carolina worker safety. Please save the date.
In closing, we hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and enjoys some well-deserved time away from work to enjoy fellowship with family and friends. Have a Happy New Year and we look forward to 2022.
Sincerely,
Robin
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE – NOVEMBER 2021
Greetings Safety Professionals,
Welcome to a month of Thanks on several fronts: Thank you to all the men and women who have sacrificed time, comfort, strength, ambition, health, and prosperity for the peace and safety of family and friends or any others that they’ve never known. Please take a moment this month and reward them a hundredfold for all of all their sacrifice and service for our great country. We appreciate our veterans!
Have you thought about serving in a role with our NC ASSP Chapter? Do you have a desire to promote safety? Would you like to volunteer for a role within our Chapter? We are looking for a few members to fill several roles for the 2022-2023 program year. It’s not hard and we have a wonderful, supportive network within our Executive Committee. Contact us for more information.
It’s time for Thanksgiving of 2021 and we hope that everyone enjoys the warmth of family this season and the harvest of a great feast! Happy Thanksgiving to all.
We will be continuing to share more next month about the proposal for the house of delegates that is up for a vote in early 2022. To review our ASSP governance page, click here.
Please join us for our next presentation pertaining to Robotics on November 10th, 2021 (12:00 PM – 1:00PM). Caleb Sylvester will be with us from Boston Dynamics for a safety use case of the SPOT robot.
Thank you for being a dedicated safety professional and helping to make sure that our employees return home safely to their families each day.
Robin
September 2021
Greetings Safety Colleagues,
Welcome to the Fall of 2021 and the continuation of the pandemic. The Delta variant is still wreaking
havoc across the country. This has created staffing issues, shifts in business operations, and logistical challenges for all. Please remember to take care of yourself and your family as we continue the bold effort to press forward.
Many of you are leaned on more these days than ever before in your roles. Safety has risen to the top of most all Corporate Organizations and Governmental entities. Our voices are called for more frequently and just like earlier today, even here in my role, we were asked to weigh in on a CV-19 billing issue with testing. What will it be next?
Locally, we still do not have a certified budget from the General Assembly. We are operating on a continuation budget. While many North Carolinians never think too much about it, this process continues to slowly creep forward on Jones Street. The State Government does not face a shut down, however the items in one of the longest budget proposals in our state’s history most likely will not be dealt with until October. Safety does have some skin in the proposal, but we won’t know until it is formally certified.
Nationally, the House passed a package of seven appropriations bills in Washington, that would give significant budget increases to worker safety agencies. H.R. 4502 allocates $691.8 million to OSHA which begins Oct 1. Included in this portion is $45 million in OSHA’s enforcement budget and $11 million in compliance assistance. Parts of the new appropriations also fund MSHA and NIOSH. This could mean much more enforcement in the coming year as the shift from employer Covid safety moves toward employee Covid safety responsibilities. This will be an entertaining transition for us to witness.
Many of you may have heard about the ASSP National Safety 2021 Conference that was held in Austin, Texas this month. From the North Carolina Chapter, Jon Wallace attended in person, and Frieda Sanders attended virtually. It was a great conference, and we were fortunate to review some excellent content. Others from our Chapter may have also attended. Let us know if you were able to participate.
We will be sharing more next month about the proposal for the house of delegates that is up for vote in early 2022. To review our ASSP governance page, click here.
Please join us for our next presentation pertaining to Robotics on October 14th, 2021 (12:00 PM – 1:00PM). Caleb Sylvester will be with us from Boston Dynamics for a safety use case of the SPOT robot.
Thank you for being a safety professional and helping to make sure our employees return home safely to their families each day.
Robin
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE – AUGUST 2021
Greetings Safety Professionals!
Welcome to a new Chapter year. My name is Robin Barfield, and we have an exciting year of activities planned that will be beneficial for all. Most of our schedule will be virtual and we hope you can join us during our monthly EC meetings and technical presentations.
One major announcement that our Chapter has for you, for the 5th consecutive year, we achieved the Platinum Level recognition for our annual COMT report. Special Thanks to our 2020-2021 EC Team for their guidance and Pat Reagan for leading us to the Platinum goal. Thanks Pat! It was indeed a year with so many new twists from routine normalcy.
While we have tried to provide face to face options, we have been challenged with the new Delta variant’s increase in cases both here in NC as well as all the US. Unfortunately, more variants will most likely emerge as new strains continue to develop. For now, the direction we are headed is to remain virtual for at least the first part of the year and continue to make assessments as trends develop. We have an excellent plan for our Virtual Technical Meetings via Teams live. Our social media chair Bryce Lawlor and our Communications Team will be coordinating all the logistics to pull this together. We plan to archive our presenters and have them available for future use. Details are available on the NC Chapter Webpage under the News and Events, Events tab. https://nc.assp.org/event/. Here is our next quarter’s schedule:
September 9th, 2021 (12:00 pm – 1:00 pm) Sam Fabolo, from FDR Safety, will be with us to discuss interview and hiring practices during a pandemic. What has changed is the question?
September 13-15, 2021. Safety 2021 ASSP Annual Conference in Austin Texas. In person and virtual is available.
On October 14th, 2021, (12:00 PM – 1:00PM) Caleb Syvester will be with us from Boston Dynamics for a safety use case of the SPOT robot.
On November 10th, 2021 (12:00 PM – 1:00PM) Eric Hendman will be presenting the SuitX, innovations in Exoskeleton technology with an emphasis on MSDs.
On December 9th, 2021 (12:00 PM – 1:00PM) Commissioner Josh Dobson will address the NC ASSP Chapter and share with us his vision for worker safety during the next several years.
We are excited about this new Chapter year and some new faces to assist us to continue to excel for our membership. Thank you for being a member and please reach out to anyone on our Team if we can support you in any way.
Information from ASSP
NC just completed the Safe and Sound Week, August 9-15. We hope you were able to take advantage of this annual initiative to move your efforts forward.
Chapter Leadership Notices:
New face and new roles this year,
President Elect- Ogaga Jonathan Tebehaevu
Membership-Doug Gaylord
Program Chair-Monte Simpson
Communications-Eric Waagner
Academic Recruiting-Mike Conner
Communications Mentor-Anthony Dohmann
Member at Large- Jeff Medlin
Chapter Member Spotlight: If you know of a NC ASSP Member Safety Professional with a career path that might be an inspiration or validation to other safety professionals, please let us know. We are looking for our October Member Spotlight and would love for current members input on a safety professional that deserves this recognition.
Thanks all,
Robin