Greetings from Washington DC.

I just never know where this journey called “LIFE” is taking me these days. This week I find myself working in our Nation’s Capital City and next week I’ll be in Canada – who knows where is next. Exciting times for sure.

Before I forget, I hope to see everyone at the upcoming Alabama Governor’s Safety and Health Conference in Orange Beach. Reach out to me to let me know if you’re attending, I’d love to grab a beverage and/or a bite together. It’s not too late to sign up if you’re interested.

Also in August (next week) is OSHA’s Safe and Sound Week and we’ve all received an invite from our friends at UA SafeState to participate in two free webinars. Details and registration links are below.

   First Webinar: How Soon We Forget

   Date: August 17, 2022 Time: 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. CST

   Description: How many important things have you forgotten? That’s a great set-up to the punch-line, “I don’t know – I forgot!” But what if it’s a critical new skill set that mitigates specific risks like those experienced during a pandemic? How do we avoid Complacency Drift’s trap and develop skills which become habitual?

   Presenter: Danny Smith, SMS, CIT

   Second Webinar: Safe and Sound Week: Work Zone Management

   Date: August 19, 2022 Time: 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. CST

   Description: Join Melissa Bonds-Wilkins and Katie Aune as they discuss the management of work zones and the current trends in reflective materials.

   Presenters: Melissa Bonds-Wilkins and Katie Aune

Our August meeting is next week and it’s the same speaker and topic that was held in our Auburn Section last month. It’s focused on Medical Marijuana and the whole employment issues it has brought and will continue to bring in the coming months/years. We will be meeting on Friday the 19th at our normal time and location. (AGC Building at 5000 Grantswood Road, Irondale) Our speaker will be Melisa Zwilling with Carr, Allison. This session is a must for all Safety, HR, and Operations leadership personnel.

Let’s come together if our schedules permit. I know it’s easier and somewhat more convenient to dial in, but the ASSP is about networking in addition to education. Please RSVP if you haven’t already. I’ll look forward to seeing all of you on Friday the 19th. Until our next – call, text, or email me if I can ever be of assistance. Take care and please stay well.

– Paul

Paul Thurber

Good Morning – Good Afternoon – Good Evening!

I trust everyone is having a safe summer. For whatever reason, it seems like there is a lot going on. Regardless of the industry and or company – everyone is busy. Sure, some exceptions may apply, but busy feels like the new norm. Let’s make certain to take/make the time needed to self-check. Are we taking care of ourselves in a manner that supports our personal and professional health? We’ll talk more about this later down the road, but for today, reach out to others when you find yourself in need. We’re a T-E-A-M and we know that Together Everyone Achieves More.

By the way, let’s not confuse “busy” with productive. We need to make certain we’re still making and meeting our goals along the way.

Our July meeting is later this week and it seems like we just met for June. Time sure is flying these days – we must be having fun. We will be meeting on Friday the 15th at our normal time and location. (AGC Building at 5000 Grantswood Road, Irondale) We will be discussing HEAT and hearing from our UA SafeState team regarding heat injury prevention and new wearable technologies.

Let’s come together if our schedules permit. I know it’s easier and somewhat more convenient to dial in, but the ASSP is about networking in addition to education. Please RSVP if you haven’t already. I look forward to seeing all of you on Friday. Until our next – call, text, or email me if I can ever be of assistance. Take care and please stay well.

 – Paul

Paul Thurber
President – ASSP Alabama Chapter
paul@everguard.ai
334-247-5170

Hello Colleagues and Friends!

    It’s getting hot out there and I hope everyone has a heat-illness free summer underway. Remember, heat illnesses can occur even when it feels cool outside or even when it’s raining. How’s that for an opening line? Enough about that for now, but it should remain high on our discussion/training lists throughout the next 3-4 months at least. Let’s make it a plan to discuss heat-illness prevention best-practices throughout the summer.

   On the more traditional greetings, I trust this letter finds everyone busy and safe. As we’ve discussed before, safety doesn’t happen by chance – it requires a task-by-task choice.

   Great meeting last month, by the way. Thanks to everyone that found the time in their schedule to attend. Randall Arms did an outstanding job with his Lone-Worker presentation. As briefly discussed in the meeting, the Executive committee met as well and agreed to look for Social Media Manager for our Chapter’s various accounts. Please let me know if you have an interest in helping the Chapter move forward with this.

   Our June meeting is a little over a week away and I hope to see you there. We will be meeting on the 17^th at our normal time and location. (AGC Building at 5000 Grantswood Road, Irondale) Our speaker will be Justin Brown from Sales Solutions. Justin will be presenting on Fall Protection.

   June’s challenge is very similar to that of May’s as it relates to the heat. It’s been said that ‘what gets measured – gets completed’. Let’s seek to identify new ways to measure and teach hydration and its overall importance to sustaining an incident-free effort. Remember, of friends at UA SafeState have free services available to help support our efforts in this.

   Let’s lead by example as it relates to our safety. Our example should be one of communication, caring, and contributing to not only our own personal safety, but to the safety of others alike.   I’ll look forward to seeing all of you on the 17th. Until our next – call, text, or email me if I can ever be of assistance. Take care and please stay well.

 – Paul

Paul Thurber
President – ASSP Alabama Chapter
paul@everguard.ai
334-247-5170

Greetings!

    I trust this letter finds everyone doing well, staying healthy and successful. I know a lot measure success differently; however, as a safety family I believe we all value safety, both on and off the job similarly. With that said, I hope this letter finds you safe for all the right reasons.  

   Since our last meeting, we’ve experienced a lot of change. I guess change is becoming more and more of our constant. How’s that for irony?  Seriously though, we really have become more AWARE as a result of the pandemic. Awareness, as a whole, has always played a big part in our safety efforts, but it seems like everyone is simply more aware these days. As I travel, I see people paying more attention to the news in lobbies, restaurants, and such. In fact, I overheard a group of young people exiting the hotel yesterday reminding each other to “be safe” as they were heading out. Two little words that drive countless requirements and actions. I love to hear them spoken!

   Our May meeting is fast approaching, and I hope everyone is able to join us live and in person. It would be great to get back to thirty or forty on a given month. Please try to make it in person if you’re able. Our speaker this month is Randall Arms. For the last 15 years, Randall has dedicated his career to safety. He spent his first 8 years in the safety distribution industry providing product solutions to clients, and educating the latest updates with standard organizations such as ANSI, NIOSH, etc.  He also had the opportunity to spend time as an EHS professional managing EHS programs at companies such as Bridgestone, Dal-tile and Gibson Guitar.  Randall understands that safety is more than a standard or legislation – it’s how people think, behave, and react. Today, Randall is the regional sales manager for Blackline Safety where he promotes connected safety devices that focus on lone worker and gas detection solutions.

   As for our challenge this month, it’s May and it’s getting hot out there already. What are we doing to prepare ourselves and our teams for the heat? Let’s make this a conversation during our next meeting. Let’s bring those best practices together as a share. I’ll start the conversation and count on everyone to share a bit.

   As we go about our personal routines, let’s not forget to check on others. Truth be told, none of us can go it alone. Sure, we may think we can, but I’d disagree. Let’s be each other’s keepers – that means we’ll ask questions AND we’ll listen to the responses.

   I look forward to seeing all of you on the 20th. Until our next – call, text, or email me if I can ever be of assistance. Take care and please stay well.

 – Paul

Paul Thurber
President – ASSP Alabama Chapter
paul@everguard.ai

It’s April Already!

    I hope this letter finds everyone doing well. It’s the first week of April and it seems like everyone and everything is operating in the fast lane. How many of you can remember what the Eagles had to say about, “LIFE IN THE FAST LANE…”? Let’s make certain we’re doing everything we can to prevent surprises. Remember, surprises lead to incidents and incidents lead to injuries.

   I recently had the privilege to speak at the Forging Industry Association’s inaugural Safety Conference in Detroit, where I introduced our AI (artificial intelligence) solutions to that industry. It was a great meeting by the way. During said meeting a “near miss” was defined by an attendee as “any unplanned event”. Think about that for a minute, if something happens that we weren’t expecting, it could or could not – would or would not result in injury solely based on reaction and response. To us safety folks, those are code words for LUCK. In all my days, I have not heard a better definition for near miss than that. With this in mind, do we think we do a good job of capturing “all near misses”. I think we’d all agree, WE DO NOT. 

   Our April meeting is fast approaching, and we have our good friend Tom Robinson from the AGC coming to speak to us about Work Zone Hazards. UA SafeState will be sponsoring the lunch for this meeting, so please plan to attend. We’ll be meeting at the same time and same place as our usual meetings.

   As for our challenge this month, it’s April and we’re well into the second quarter of 2022. How are we doing? NO, I MEAN HOW ARE WE DOING? Let’s self-check often and routinely. As we go about our personal routines, let’s not forget to check on our fellows. Let’s be each other’s keepers – that means we’ll ask questions AND we’ll listen to the responses.

   I look forward to seeing all of you on the 15^th. Until our next – call, text, or email me if I can ever be of assistance. Take care and please stay well.

 – Paul

Paul Thurber
President – ASSP Alabama Chapter
paul@everguard.ai
334-247-5170