May 2017 President’s Message

Voting has started for a President-elect, Secretary, and Director of Administration. Please make your selection and case a ballot. The future of our great organizational lies with its leadership. Vote today.

This month the Executive Committee (EC) has taken on a new challenge. We are meeting to discuss the path forward by developing a strategic management plan. We will review our strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats facing the organization. In addition, we will consider the power and intensity of combining valued resources, collaborating with other associations, expanding human talent and capacity, and restructuring for the 21st century. With limited time and resources for health and safety, NJAIHA would like to become your local source for information, training, and base of knowledge to support our membership. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please contact Craig Doolittle.

NJAIHA is now connected to AIHA’s eLearning solutions, which are designed for busy professionals seeking an alternate educational setting. This virtual learning environment provides the same standard of learning and level of technical content, but is administered online. Certification maintenance is awarded by AIHA for participants. AIHA webinars are web-based continuing education events that enable attendees to learn anytime from the comfort of their own home or office. AIHA webinars are presented by industry experts on a variety of topics, catering to every OEHS niche, and are fully accredited and allow IHs and OEHS professionals to obtain contact hours towards their certification maintenance programs. Automatic registration to AIHA webinars can earn you at least 10 contact hours.

The AIHA eLearning subscription also guarantees registration to the 2017 AIHA virtual conference on leadership and management via live video streaming, multi-track session broadcast; opportunities to submit questions for presenters and interact with other virtual participants via chat, and access to session recordings. NJAIHA members could earn another 11.5 contact hours. This is an outstanding business value for the price of NJAIHA membership.

Don’t forget our summer classes start soon. Although the structure of these classes is designed to help study for the CIH and CSP exams, you can also learn more about a particular topic to improve your understanding of the subject. Attending these summer courses can help those members who seek certification maintenance credits or continuing educational credits toward recertification as a CIH or CSP. For more information, contact Hank Shotwell.

Remember our “Loyalty Rewards Program” is in full swing Members who attend any five (5) dinner meetings will get the 6th dinner free!! Loyalty rewards are tracked by having your wallet card autographed at each dinner meeting. Also, if you sign up any five (5) new or former NJAIHA members in our “Member Get-a-Member” program, NJAIHA will offer you a free dinner at any one of the monthly meetings. There are no time constraints for either program. Contact Candice Kowalewski with any questions regarding membership services.

You may have seen our many postings on social media – Facebook and Linkedin. Our objective is to connect more with our members and attract new members on topics of interest and begin a deep dive by talking about the issues that affects the workforce, public, or environment. Using social media provides more connectivity with our membership in a timely fashion rather than emails alone. We have posted a number of jobs opportunities on Linkedin to complement the learning process. We encourage members to contribute information about the profession, interesting research, upcoming events, videos, and posting job opportunities. If you want to take a more active role in support of our social media content portfolio management, please contact Mark Ostapczuk.

NJAIHA continues to seek more vendors to advertise in our monthly newsletter and website, and help sponsor our monthly dinner meetings. As a bonus for advertising, we will promote your business by posting your information on our Facebook webpage. Advertising helps connect business opportunities with our membership. If you would like to advertise, complete an application on the website. Jack Zybura can provide more information about posting any information to the website or social media.

It’s time to review scholarship applications. Help us fund the 2017 NJAIHA student scholarships. We are continuing to sell the piqué polo shirts with the NJAIHA logo to raise revenue to support the student scholarships. These shirts can be prominently worn to any NJAIHA venue and they make a great gift. If you want to make a purchase, contact Craig Doolittle. You also can purchase them at the dinner meetings or visit the NJAIHA website. We would like to show solidarity by wearing these shirts at the upcoming June dinner meeting when we present the student scholarship awards.

The NJ State Assembly and Senate recently passed the “Hazardous Drug Safe Handling Act.” The purpose for this legislation is to help protect healthcare personnel who work with or near hazardous drugs in healthcare settings and whom may be exposed to these agents in the air and through contact with work surfaces, clothing, medical equipment, and patients. Over the next 12 months, all stakeholders who have an interest are being asked for their input into the construct of health and safety written requirements to support implementation of this legislation. If you would like to help us provide comment, guidance, and feedback to protect these workers, please contact Craig Doolittle.

Our subcommittee continues to update the current bylaws and operation manual. One area of interest is deeper understanding of conflict of interest and fiduciary responsibilities of the NJAIHA Executive Committee members. If anyone wants to help or provide comment, please contact Hank Shotwell.

NJAIHA continues to work with New Jersey State Industrial Safety Committee (NJSISC) leadership to collaborate on the annual award ceremonies and dinner meetings. This collaboration allows worthy businesses to attend the banquet and receive their annual safety awards. It is an opportunity for NJAIHA to receive name recognition for our dedication and work to protect the health of all workers.

In closing, I hope to see you and a friend at the Thursday, June 15th dinner meeting at Snuffy’s! This is our end-of-year gala. We have scheduled Mark Ames (AIHA) and Tom Case as our guest speakers for this event. Look for details in a future email announcement or post on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Best regards,
Bernard L. Fontaine, Jr., CIH, CSP, FAIHA
President NJAIHA