IOSH 2008 Conference, Telford UK

Day 2 (Monday)

Today was a day of international meetings. At 11:30 Wayne and I met with a group of international delegates to discuss some of our initiatives, share areas of growth and concern along with best practices and other helpful information.



In attendance Sarah Hamilton – Director of International Affairs IOSH; Dewy Witemore – ASSE; Past President Lisa Fowlie; Wayne and myself; Ministry of Labour and Social Policy from the Republic of Bulgaria – legal expert Atanas Kolchakov; IOSH – President Ray Hurst; ASSE – President Mike Thompson, IOSH Executive Director – Rob Strange, SC2 Singapore – General Manager - Harry Ho; and missing from the picture Sasha Lemon from International Affairs IOSH. After the meeting, more information discussions occurred at a late lunch with us departing at around 3:30.

Discussions continued later that evening with additional people from around the world. Ray Hurst – the IOSH president welcomed everyone to the evening. I presented and brought fraternal greetings and well wishes from the CSSE to the conference, along with representatives from USA, Singapore, Kingdom of Bahrain, and Malta.

What a great opportunity to meet other safety professionals and organizations from around the world. At the meeting in the afternoon and in the evening, we realized that most of our initiatives and strategies are heading in the same directions – we just are at different locations on the path. Our concerns and issues are relatively similar and we all do not want to have to reinvent the wheel. Relationships were built throughout the day that will help support CSSE activities and heighten our credibility at home and abroad.

IOSH 2008 Conference, Telford UK

Day 1 (Sunday)

The IOSH 08 conference took place once again in Telford UK. It really is a great conference center and a wonderful English community in which to have the conference. What a place to learn from each other about health and safety, as that was a big part of this community during the birth of the industrial revolution there, 251 years ago.

This year, I was accompanied by Wayne Glover, our Executive Director, for the first time. The Executive Committee feels that it is important that Wayne continue to accompany the CSSE President to these events to provide continuity with this ongoing relationship. Presidents come and go, but the Executive Director stays around for a while.

Relationships built at last year's IOSH Conference were celebrated and new ones were formed. I really want to thank IOSH and all of the wonderful people there for the kindness and generosity of time, information and friendship that they gave (and continue to give).

The first day started with getting my sleep and wake patterns adjusted and touching base with people that had already arrived. Wayne and I had a small strategy session and then met up with Mike Thompson the ASSE president for Dinner that evening.

Stay tuned for more details about the IOSH 2008 conference.

In health and done safely,
Eldeen E. Pozniak BA, BSc, CEES, CHSC, CRSP

The Advocacy Committee Met in February...

Definition of Advocacy: Advocacy is the process whereby we communicate with other parties in an effort to educate or provide information to allow others to make informed decisions and to compel them to take action on certain issues or topics.

The CSSE Advocacy committee met face to face for the first time in Toronto in February and I attended that meeting. I was very impressed with the committee, but more so with the individuals around the table and their commitment to the project. The set up of the committee is like that of other CSSE Strategic focus committees – Regional with Staff support. The committee members are: Ed Dyna – Chair, Andrew Smith, Bob Westhaver, Dawn Turner, Dorothy Beckett, Frank O’Rourke, Grazyna Momot, Spenser MacPherson and Wayne Glover. Congrats group for all of your hard work that was evident at the meeting and for the engagement that you have with this new adventure that the CSSE is going on.

The committee has outlined a 3 pronged approach and is putting together how each of these look and how each will roll out going forward: supporting the profession, supporting an issue/position, and representation on boards/councils.

At this meeting they discussed and initiated principles that will guide the committee in the future. They identified the need to understand just what a safety professional is and that fits with our other strategic focus areas within the education portfolio and the competency study. They further discussed options for and mapped out the process for our members to bring forth issues/positions and how the committee will deal with them.

The Advocacy Committee has outlined and implemented the process to select members to represent the Society on boards and technical committees, which is working well and they are now starting to explore opportunities where our members can do this. If you are interested in sitting on a committee keep your eye on the job posting area of the web site – posting and application processes and forms are there. You can contact Wayne at the CSSE office or Ed Dyna if you have a board or council you feel the CSSE should be participating on.

The Committee is going to conduct a survey so that they and the society as a whole can understand what our membership feels about Advocacy. So keep your eye out for it, and when it comes to you… please fill it out. It is short, to the point and full of info that we feel we need to have to represent you – the CSSE member appropriately.

Communication between the committee, people selected for the committees and the general CSSE membership was discussed and will be an item that will be addressed. As within the definition of Advocacy – communication is the foundation piece.

To find out more about the Advocacy Committee or the Plan they have, go to the Advocacy tab under the members area on the web site.

CSSE Advocacy Committee

Toronto Chapter Education Day

The Toronto chapter held a Professional Development Day on Tuesday February 12, 2008 and I was invited to attend to support and participate. Thanks to the chapter – what a great day.

The following is a list of the wonderful speakers who presented and the topics they discussed at the meeting:

• Cheryl Edwards discussed liabilities of the safety professional under OH&S legislation;
• the Honorable Brad Duguid, Ontario Minister of Labour spoke about this view;
• Ontario WCB discussed the accreditation pilot project of the WSIB;
• a panel that spoke about safety professional competencies; the panel included Kirby James (The James Group), Theresa Wong Toose (Mapleleaf Foods) and me... just to mention a few.

It was great to have the Minister of Labour speaking at the event, he was a real draw. I hear that Theresa had the connections to bring him in – way to use them. It is all about partnerships and utilizing them strategically – oh, is that not the theme of this year’s PDC in Quebec city? Anyway…

The event was well planned – congrats to Lisa Tkaczuk for all her hard work as she primarily organized and managed this chapter initiative and the other chapter members who supported her initiative and did their part to make it a success. It was well attended – I am unsure of the final numbers but over 100 people attended for sure.

Congratulations to Toronto chapter for having a great professional development day that was informative and entertaining. I’d like to hear about your professional development day – do you have one? What do you have planned? When is it scheduled? Feel free to post your comments.

Pictures attached – Toronto Chapter Executive and a shot with Honorable Brad Duguid.

Meetings between the President and the Executive Director are important.

Monday, February 11, 2007

While in Toronto recently I met with Wayne Glover at the CSSE office to review theyear’s agenda, prepare for the upcoming board meeting and to make sure we are bothinformed about what is going on in the CSSE world… from both of our perspectives. As the President, I have been in regular (Wayne may think it is constant) communication with him in his role as the Executive Director. Together, we continue to look at the vision of the organization and the strategic and operational plans and we work to ensure that these items are moving forward. As the board has moved to the strategic focus format, discussions on how things are going, what direction they are taking and in what direction we need to move the organization is key between these two positions - to ensure the forward momentum that we have. Wayne has also been in regular communication via phone and email to Art Nordholm - the Treasurer / V.P. who will be taking on the role of President this coming fall. Wayne is a key element to ensuring a smooth transition and aconsistent approach to our projects and strategic focus areas.

I believe that it is of utmost importance for the President and the Executive Director to have at least one or two face to face meetings a year, as well as the numerous phone calls and emails, as they work closely together for the benefit of the organization. It allows both to get to know each other’s approach and to plan activities, meetings, and communications appropriately. Wayne has been wonderful in assisting me to fulfill my role as President, calm me when I need calming, motivate me when I need motivating... and I know that he will continue to provide great support to our organization with the next, and the next, and the next.

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.