September 2016 President’s Message

The students are back to school and fall is almost upon us. The Executive Committee met to discuss the local section action plan agenda and upcoming December PDCs and Northeast Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exhibition (NEIHce). If you would like to volunteer your time, we could use your assistance to help with moderation, logistics and other coordinated activities. Anyone who wants to volunteer, please contact Barbara Woodhull.

Mark Ostapczuk is planning a stellar lineup of engaging speakers for our Professional Development Courses (PDCs) for December 1, 2016. More information will be forthcoming as we get closer to the event. We are always interested in hearing from anyone either from our membership or outside the organization who wishes to speak at our monthly dinner meetings, PDCs, or our annual regional conference. Please contact Craig Doolittle if you wish to volunteer.

NJAIHA has begun an outreach campaign regarding the NJ Youth@Work Talking Safety program. Our mission is to collaborate with stakeholders to develop awareness, construct legislation, and provide the tools to (1) develop policy to require all school districts to present a 45-minute curriculum for students who will be seeking employment, possible for the first time and the responsibilities of their employers to provide a safe and healthful workplace and (2) upload the free materials needed for faculty to conduct the group training by the end of the school year. The curriculum is fun, free and engaging for administrators, teachers and school/community-based job placement staff to educate young people about the basics of job safety and health.

The curriculum also presents essential information and career-readiness skills that focuses on eight (8) strategic core competencies. These transferable skills will help students stay safe and healthy now and throughout their lives. The curriculum is flexible and it can easily be tailored to meet the needs of all NJ students while addressing specific child labor rules and regulations. In order for us to be success we seek the assistance of our membership and several Outreach Coordinators. The tools for administrators and faculty to train students was posted on the NJAIHA website under IH Resources. If you are interested in supporting this initiative, please contact Mark Ostapczuk or Candice Kowalewski.

On the flip side, Rutgers School of Public Health helped create the Safe Schools Program. Project development was supported by the NJ Department of Education, Office of Career and Technical Education, to assist schools in reducing risk to occupational safety and health hazards in secondary school and work microenvironments in which NJ adolescents spend time. The project is administered by the Center for School and Community-Based Research and Education at the Rutgers-School of Public Health. The program comes with a manual of self-inspection checklists covering environmental, health and safety regulations for secondary occupational and career orientation programs in NJ public schools. However, this program is not designed to teach students, who are entering the workforce for the first time, about occupational health and safety hazards and risk and the responsibilities of their employers. NJAIHA wishes to make a clear distinction between mission of the current program and the NJ Youth@Work Talking Safety program. If we are going to be successful, we need your help.

We are still looking for volunteers to be our Outreach Coordinators. This important opportunity assists NJAIHA to increase awareness of our profession as a career choice and the benefits of being a member of our local chapter. Ideally, we would be to start a NJAIHA student chapter to create synergy between NJAIHA, local universities and colleges. We envision that some of our scholarship winners and undergraduate and graduate students could work as Outreach Coordinators to tell middle school and high school students about the benefits of our profession. NJAIHA has constructed a fun and brief to meet this goal. If you are interested in this project, please contact Candice Kowalewski.

Our standard order of business continues to be our main theme for 2016. We want you at the dinner meetings, professional development courses and the NEIHce! We are working hard to find quality speakers to engage our membership and cover the current topics of interest. If you haven’t heard, NJAIHA is offering a “Loyalty Rewards Program”. Members who attend any five (5) dinner meetings will get the sixth dinner free!! The program is not applicable to any PDCs or the NEIHce. In addition, if you sign-up five (5) new or former members, we will gladly offer you a free dinner as well. Feel free to contact me on any other incentives to drive organizational engagement and increase the membership.

You may noticed an increase in postings on social media – Facebook and Linkedin. Our objective is to connect with more Millennials. There are many peer-reviewed articles and other resources, which may be of interest to our members and the work that they do. Recently, we started “Tell Me Your Story” which will feature briefs from NJAIHA membership in our newsletters about what we do and how it benefits to the economy, society, and governance of business. We look forward to receiving your comments and recommendations regarding content and format to deliver timely information about our profession. If you have an interesting article to share, please forward it to Mark Ostapczuk.

We are seeking vendors to advertise in our monthly newsletter and website. As a bonus, we will promote your business advertising on Facebook as well. Our objective is to provide added business value to the advertising and attract new customers to showcase their products and services. If you would like to advertise with us, complete the application on the website. Jack Zybura can provide more information about posting any information to the website or social media.

As a reminder, we continue selling the piqué polo shirts with the NJAIHA logo to raise additional revenue to support the student scholarships next year. We are holding our pricing structure so that more of our members can afford these items. These shirts can be worn to any NJAIHA venue and they make a great gift. Several of our members proudly wore these shirts at our Past President’s night and AIHce in Baltimore. MD. If you are interested in making a purchase, please contact Craig Doolittle.

Effective September 7, 2016, AIHA will be changing the program administrator for its sponsored Professional Liability Insurance plan. Administration of policy application, issuance and claims will be handled by Alliant Insurance Services, a privately held, national insurance brokerage firm from their offices in Chantilly, VA. AIHA appointed Lawrence “Larry” D. Sloan, CAE as the new CEO, effective October 17, 2016. In closing, I’ll see you at our September 15th dinner meeting at Snuffy’s!

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