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.

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.