Saskatchewan Safety Seminar

As the President of the CSSE it's great when my work allows me to attend conferences where I can wear the CSSE President hat and represent our wonderful association. The Saskatchewan Safety Seminar - one of the biggest safety conferences in the West (notice I said 'one,' Terry...) was held in Saskatoon, SK. So, since I didn't have to travel to get there and I was going to be there anyway, I am part of the conference committee and my job places me there to work. I was able to represent the CSSE at a couple of the events and activities at the conference.

Cris Kemp - the SK / MN Regional V.P. did a great presentation on "Everything you wanted to know about the CSSE"; he effectively communicated who we are and what we can do if people are interested in health and safety and moving their agendas forward within their workplaces. I introduced Cris at the conference and put in my 2 cents with a summary at the end of his presentation… Image that, me putting in my 2 cents.

Although there were many chapter members to man the CSSE booth at the conference, I also stepped in offer my support. It was a pleasure to bring people over to the booth, to hand out materials to interested people and to assist Cris with dismantling and boxing the booth for shipping. I thought, being President, I might be able to delegate that task, but no, taking down and boxing up is also a part of the job description.

Approaching exhibitors at the conference with PDC information took a couple of them by surprise, as I think they are more accustomed to going after conference attendees than having someone approach them with information trying to sell them on the positive aspects of exhibiting at the PDC. Hopefully one or two will take us up on the opportunity and be exhibitors at our conference in Quebec City.

Having a joint CSSE chapter meeting with over 30 people in attendance between the South Saskatchewan and Northern Light Chapters was another opportunity at this event to talk about the CSSE, to answer some questions and to receive some feedback. Cris did another wonderful presentation and we worked together to talk about NAOSH Week, the upcoming PDC and some of the positive aspects of the CSSE. It is good to celebrate our local and national successes with likeminded people - those who support the safety profession and the CSSE.

Planning for the next board meeting

I am really excited about our next board meeting in February. I was just doing some prep work for that meeting and thought I would share my excitement with all of you. We are going to have some time with the BCRSP to discuss some joint possibilities within our futures. It is great to be able to see the hard work of the members of the CSSE and the BCRSP at this level, but to also look at some of our common objectives and goals and see how we can work together to move the profession and professional development forward. Just thought I would let you know.

Wishing you the best of the Season

I just want to take this opportunity to wish you all the best for this holiday season and to tell you that I hope that the new year will bring you adventure, laughter,... and give you fuel for your passion for health and safety.

As a year ends and a new one begins, we look at where we have been and into the year ahead. This last year as President has brought with it wonderful opportunities, and challenges. I thought someone said it would be easy. We have made decisions that will take this organization into the future on solid ground. Some members have been supportive of these decisions and some have challenged us back. We have solidified our strategic directions and focuses to ensure the stability of the organization as well as provide our members value for their membership. We have explored new opportunities for the organization. We have improved on services that we already provide. The education portfolio is exploring competencies and working to advance the CHSC designation and professional standards. NAOSH Week is growing. Our PDC is stronger than it ever was. With the growth that we have been experiencing, we have had challenges. As with any business or organization there are times when we go three steps forward and one back. Thanks for being patient with us as we make decisions as a Board to lead the Society today and into the future.

We are working towards being the intellegent organization that I spoke about when I first became President (refer to an earlier blog). We are putting in place the foundation pieces and processes, at the same time staying flexible enough as a learning organization to react to opportunity quickly.

I am excited about the year to come and I am sure that there will be many more exciting opportunities for the Society and more adventures to go on. This is the year that Art Nordholm will move into the President's role and I will move into the Past President position to support him and the organization in what will be a new role for me.

Have a safe and happy holiday.
I wish each one of you all the best in the New Year!

Eldeen

CSO Symposium in BC

I was asked by the local BC mainland chapter executive, the Regional VP of BC & Yukon and Worksafe BC to speak to approximately 300 CSO's in British Columbia at the Worksafe BC CSO Symposium. It was a wonderful opportunity to speak to the CSSE members who attended as I stood in the CSSE booth, but it also gave me a chance to address potential new members. I was the Conference's opening speaker and I used the opportunity to challenge the audience on how they approach safety and to discuss options for professional development and also to fly the CSSE banner. It was great to be able to work with the local chapters and Regional VP to spread the message of what the CSSE is and what we can do to assist individuals within their career paths. I hope that the presidential role can expand into this area, as our organization grows. By the way, the membership applications and CSSE information were flying off of the booth's display table.

The National PDC Committee

Since the conference and over the past two months I have been catching up on work and balancing that with CSSE activities. What does the President do after the conference? Sleep! Besides that, I have been involved in high level discussions on future conferences. CSSE has a National focus on how we plan our conference. This has been an evolving process that started a few years ago. Up until five years ago, we use to pick a city, let the local chapters run with the conference and cross our fingers. You all know what happens when "cross your fingers" is how you handle safety... so we changed our process following the 2003 Conference in Saskatoon to a National Conference committee that has representation from across the country. Thus far it has been working well. As we are growing and taking the conference into new dimensions, there are challenges, but we are ironing them out. The National PDC Committee's success is built upon the wonderful volunteers that are so actively involved. Thanks to each one of them.

CSSE - A Global Organization

As I travel around the world, I get to represent the CSSE on the world stage and I often get into discussions that have the opportunity to benefit CSSE. As most of you know, I work for an International Safety Consulting Company and it can take me to interesting places. The last couple of weeks I have been in Dubai, UAE. I have had the honor to represent my consulting firm at the World Dubai projects EH&S awards and had the opportunity to introduce and discuss the CSSE and its initatives with some of the UAE leaders.

I also had the opportunity to meet with some of the CSSE's Middle East members and we discussed the possibility of forming a chapter in their region. Some of the CSSE members have no chapter to belong to for they are in the international membership category and some of the members I talked to have a home chapter in Canada, but it is a long way to go for the monthly luncheon meeting. They feel that they have little support or activities to go to while working their regular jobs - where is the value of membership?

Both myself and your next President - Art Nordholm (VP / Tres) are very active in promoting both membership within our organization, but also value within that membership. Just like we have supported new chapters being formed in Canada, we have also been working with some of our international members and members who are working abroad to see what we can do to continue to meet their needs. As I am assisting the Middle East in chapter formation, Art is actively working with Nigeria and China. Both Art and I are fortunate that we work for organizations that understand and support our CSSE activities and allow us to sneak in some CSSE time in on their dollar.

What is your opinion on having CSSE members and chapters in other countries?

Offensive or Effective?

Across Canada Safety Professionals and organizations that promote safety awarness often question how they can get the people of our nation interested and invested in safety. Why is it that cigarette smoke can be banned from workplaces and public areas because it affects so many, yet we hardly get a peep out of society when a report is released that we kill 5 people per day and hurt many others in our Canadian workplaces?

We as Safety Professionals utilize all types of techiques to grab the attention of the people in our workplaces. So when an article written in the Hamilton Spectator , the other day, included an article about the City of Hamilton's decision to change their minds about running the WSIB's newest ads in its bus shelters, I was intrigued. It was a prominently-placed article and the Spectator has started an online discussion about the article and the WSIB's ads. Please have a look at the online version of the story here: Graphic ads coming to city bus stops Hamilton had initially turned down controversial WSIB campaign as too gory and click here to view the article as it appeared in the paper (look at those pictures: nothing beats free advertising!)
To join the online discussions, please visit the Spec's Nicole Macintyre's blog site: Offensive or effective?

I encourage each of you to send in your opinion as well as post it to this blog... what do you think - offensive or effective?