Spring is almost here which means our severe weather potential ramps up for the southeast. Be weather aware for these events which unfortunately will occur several times in March, April, and May. It might be a good time to evaluate your facility emergency action plan severe weather procedures to be prepared for any severe weather which may impact your area. It will also be a good time to make sure you are prepared at home as well.

Our March 15, 2024 Chapter meeting will feature Ms. Maveline Perez, Civil Engineer and Assistant Area Director for the Birmingham OSHA Area Office. This meeting will be held at our usual location, the AGC facility at 5000 Grantswood Road in Irondale, AL. Ms. Perez will discuss what they will be doing over the coming year as well as her experiences working for OSHA. She will be available to answer your questions so please bring them to the meeting.

The 2024 Central Alabama Construction Conference is almost here and will be well attended. It will be held at the Hyundai Training Center in Montgomery, Alabama on Thursday March 14, 2024 from 7:30 to 3:00 pm. This event is free with registration through Deep South Center for Occupational Safety and Health at UAB. Registration is open at their website, uab.edu. The registration is under the Continuing Education listing, scroll down to the Alabama Construction Conference to register. This is a free conference with a great opportunity to get around 0.7 CEU’s. Although it says construction conference it has plenty of general industry breakout sessions.

The April 19, 2024 meeting will be our recognition luncheon. This is the first time the event has been held since 2019. All Sections are invited to this meeting as one of their annual meetings so try to attend this event. We will thank our long-standing members at this luncheon and well as recognize the Alabama Chapter Safety Professional of the Year, Mr. Vincent Scott. Please try to attend this special event.

I would like to again congratulate Mr. Vincent Scott, Secretary for the Alabama Chapter, as the 2023-2024 Safety Professional of the Year recipient. Join me in thanking Vincent for all his hard work he does for the Alabama Chapter.

The 2024 ASSP Region IV conference will be held at the Wyndham Hotel Lake Buena Vista, Florida on May 1 and 2. Registration for this event is open but limited to 200 attendees due to the size of the Hotel Conference area. For details visit www.RegionFourPdc.com. There is an early bird registration with a reduced conference registration fee. This conference offers CEUs for attending. The website also has the hotel registration information for this event.

The 2024 Governor’s Safety and Health Conference is fast approaching. The conference will be held from Monday August 26 through Wednesday August 28, 2024. One of the guest speakers will be Mr. James Spann, the Weather Authority, for Birmingham’s television station ABC 33/40. He does a really great presentation on weather including some tornadic events he has covered over the years. More information will be provided as registration opens.

Be careful and safe out there in your daily travels and work activities.

Thomas Ten Eyck, CSP
Chapter President

Our February Chapter meeting will be held on the campus of Jacksonville State University with the Student Section of ASSP. This meeting will be on Friday February 16, 2024. We will meet at the Merrill Hall, 700 Pelham Road, North Jacksonville, AL 36265. Parking will be at the hall and across the street near the traffic light. Meeting starts at 11:30 am with a presentation by Dr. Chris Schemel, University of Alabama Safe State Director. He will present on Fire Safety including some investigations he has done on the fires and explosions around the country.

Our March 15, 2024, the Chapter meeting will feature Mr. Joel Batiz, Birmingham OSHA Area Director. This meeting will be held at our usual location, the AGC facility at 5000 Grantswood Road in Irondale, AL. Mr. Batiz has worked for the Fort Worth, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia offices prior to becoming the Birmingham, AL Area Director. He will discuss what they will be doing over the coming year as well as issues he has investigated during his career with OSHA. He will be available to answer your questions so please bring them to the meeting.

The 2024 Central Alabama Construction Conference will be at the Hyundai Training Center in Montgomery, Alabama on March 14, 2024 from 7:30 to 3:00 pm. This event is free with registration through Deep South Center for Occupational Safety and Health at UAB. Registration is now open at their website, uab.edu. The registration is under the Continuing Education listing, scroll down to the Alabama Construction Conference to register. This is a free conference with a great opportunity to get around 0.7 CEU’s. Although it says construction conference it has plenty of general industry breakout sessions.

The April 19, 2024 meeting will be our recognition luncheon. All Sections are invited to this meeting as one of their annual meetings so try to attend this event. We will thank our long-standing members at this luncheon and well as recognize the Alabama Chapter Safety Professional of the Year. This will be our first recognition dinner in a while so plan on attending this great event.

I would like to congratulate Mr. Vincent Scott, Secretary for the Alabama Chapter, as the 2023-2024 Safety Professional of the Year recipient. Join me in thanking Vincent for all his hard work he does for the Alabama Chapter.

The 2024 ASSP Region IV conference will be held at the Wyndham Hotel Lake Buena Vista, Florida on May 1 and 2. Registration for this event is open but limited to 200 attendees due to the size of the Hotel Conference area. For details visit www.RegionFourPdc.com. There is an early bird registration with a reduced conference registration fee. This conference offers CEUs for attending.

Be careful and safe out there in your daily travels and work activities.

Thomas Ten Eyck, CSP
Chapter President

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas and New Years holiday season. The new year is upon us and the next Alabama Chapter ASSP meeting will be Friday January 19, 2024. The meeting will be at the AGC facility 5000 Grantswood Road Irondale, AL 35210. The meeting will start at approximately 11:30 am with the presentation followed by the Chapter meeting and ending with an Executive Committee meeting.

We have some upcoming meetings and special events so mark your calendars. Our February Chapter meeting will be held in conjunction with the Jacksonville State University Student Section of ASSP on Friday February 16, 2024. We will meet on their campus at the Merrill Hall, 700 Pelham Road, North Jacksonville, AL 36265. Parking will be at the hall and across the street near the traffic light. Meeting time will be 11:30 am with a presentation by Dr. Chris Schemel, University of Alabama Safe State Director. He will present on an interesting topic of Fire Safety which will include some of his investigations on the fires and explosions that have happened across this country.

Our March 15, 2024 meeting will feature Mr. Joel Batiz, Birmingham OSHA Area Director. He will provide insight into OSHA and what they will be doing over the coming year as well as issues he has investigated during his career with OSHA. He will be available to answer your questions so please bring them to the meeting.

The April 19, 2024 meeting will be our recognition luncheon. We will thank our long-standing members at this luncheon as well as recognize the Alabama Chapter Safety Professional of the Year. This will be our first recognition dinner in a while so plan on attending this great event.

The 2024 Central Alabama Construction Conference will be at the Hyundai Training Center in Montgomery, Alabama on March 15, 2024 from 7:30 to 3:00 pm. This is a free event with registration through the Deep South Center for Occupational Safety and Health at UAB. Registration is now open so check their website for more information and sign up. This is a free conference with CEUs for attending so a great opportunity to get valuable points for free. Although it says construction in the title there will be general industry break out sessions at the conference.

The 2024 ASSP Region IV conference will be held at the Wyndham Hotel Lake Buena Vista, Florida on May 1 and 2. Registration for this event is open but limited to 200 attendees due to the size of the Hotel Conference area. For details visit www.RegionFourPdc.com. There is an early bird registration with a reduced conference registration fee. This conference is closer than the National Safety 2024 conference in Denver Colorado in August and offers similar CEUs for attending.

Be careful and safe out there in your daily travels and work activities and Happy New Year.

Thomas Ten Eyck, CSP
Chapter President

The next Alabama Chapter of ASSP will be Friday December 15, 2023 at the AGC Facility on Grantswood Road in Irondale, AL. Meeting starts at 11:30 so come and enjoy the presentation and lunch. The November presentation is TBD.

The next Tuscaloosa/West Alabama Section meeting in Tuscaloosa, AL will be the second Friday in December, the 8th. It will be at the Tuscaloosa Gateway Center on University Blvd. in Tuscaloosa, AL. The meeting will start at 11:30.

The 2024 ASSP Region IV conference will be held at the Wyndham Hotel Lake Buena Vista, Florida on May 1 and 2. Registration for this event opened this week. It is limited to 200 attendees due to the size of the Hotel Conference area. For details visit www.RegionFourPdc.com.

The 2024 Central Alabama Construction Conference will be at the Hyundai Training Center in Montgomery, Alabama on March 15, 2024 from 7:30 to 3:00 pm. This is a free event with registration through the Deep South Center for Occupational Safety and Health at UAB. Registration should open this month so check their website for more information. This is a free conference with CEUs for attending so a great opportunity to get valuable points for free. Although it says construction in the title there will be general industry break out session at the conference.

With Christmas fast approaching it means putting up the tree and outside lights. Some interesting information I received from several Alabama insurance companies was that power strips have caused a significant number of fires in Alabama this year. One of the larger insurance companies stated they had over $5 Million in losses as of May 2023 due to power strips overheating. If you use power strips for your tree lights or other holiday displays around the house you may want to consider plugging the cords into directly into outlets or limit the number or lights per power strips. Power strips are UL approved for low voltage and computers and tend to overheat if overloaded. At the very least occasionally check to see if overheating and do not leave the power on if not in your home or at night.

Be careful and safe out there in your daily travels and work activities and have a happy Christmas and New Years.

Thomas Ten Eyck, CSP
Chapter President

The next Alabama Chapter of ASSP will be Friday November 17, 2023 at the AGC Facility on Grantswood Road in Irondale, AL. Meeting starts at 11:30 so come and enjoy the presentation and lunch. The November presentation will be by Mr. Jordan Casey of Brasfield & Gorrie Equipment services and on Raising the Bar – Crane Operations. His presentation will cover interesting crane issues that resulted in some not so pleasant accidents.

The next Tuscaloosa/West Alabama Section meeting in Tuscaloosa, AL will be the second Friday in December, the 8th. It will be at the Tuscaloosa Gateway Center on University Blvd. in Tuscaloosa, AL. The meeting will start at 11:30. Additional information on this meeting will be forthcoming once more information is available. If you have never made it to a Tuscaloosa meeting the Gateway Center is a nice little facility to come visit.

For those who have certifications and need continuing education points for the recertification process take note of a Free conference coming up early next year. The Central Alabama Construction Safety Conference and Expo is returning on March 14, 2024. It will be from 7:30 to 3:00 at the Hyundai Training Center in Montgomery, AL. Although it says construction there will be general industry topics and OSHA will be there with an update. There are usually 5 tracks with some very good presentations well worth attending for the CEUs issued. ASSP will post signup information when it becomes available, or you can check the Deep South Center for Occupational Safety and Health at UAB for sign up information. Right now, it looks like signup should start in December.

The 2024 ASSP Region IV conference will be held at the Wyndham Hotel Lake Buena Vista, Florida on May 1 and 2. The call for conference presentations was still open at the end of October and they were looking for more presenters. If you would like to present on a topic at the conference submit your proposal presentation to RegionFourPdc.com.

With the holidays fast approaching it will mean traveling to meet family wherever that takes you. Enjoy the Thanksgiving meal and time with your family and friends. And if you enjoy the Christmas shopping madness have fun getting those great deals early in the morning or late Thanksgiving night. I enjoy watching the shopping circus while drinking a cup of hot chocolate at the outlet or malls.

Be careful and safe out there in your daily travels and work activities.

Thomas Ten Eyck, CSP
Chapter President