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VPPPA’s Safety Star of the Quarter

The VPPPA Safety Star of the Quarter is a program to honor and recognize an employee’s achievements in safety performance and professionalism. Thank you to all our VPPPA Safety Stars and VPPPA members for their continued contributions to the safety and health community. Safety Stars of the Quarter will be featured on our website, social media, Leader magazine, On the Level e-newsletter, and receive a certificate.

3rd Quarter Safety Star

Jeremy Presnal

Shermco Industries

Senior Vice President, EHS & Workforce Development

Irving, Texas (Region VI)

To learn more about Jeremy, or to submit someone to be considered as a Safety Star, please visit our website: https://www.vpppa.org/ membership/safety-star/. You can also email membership@vpppa.org.

LinkedIn: VPPPA, Inc.

Facebook @VPPPA

Twitter: @VPPPA

Instagram: @VPPPA_Inc

Trench Safety Essentials Webinar

Save the date! VPPPA and the Safe + Sound Campaign will host a free webinar on trench safety essentials in June in observance of Trench Safety Month. The webinar will be presented as part of the Partner Seminar Series for OSHA’s Safe + Sound campaign, a national initiative aimed at promoting awareness and understanding of workplace safety and health programs.

• Cost: Free

• When: June 21, 2023, from 1:00–2:30 p.m. ET

• Registration: vpppa.org/webinars

A Note from VPPPA’s Membership & Outreach Manager, Son Nguyen

“The cost of injury prevention is far less than the cost of an injury.”

For many of us, a large portion of our day is spent at work; in fact, the average person will spend 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime. It’s safe to say your job can make a huge impact on your quality of life. And that is why I can’t stress enough the importance of workplace safety.

Each person who leaves their home should come back to their home in good health. Have you ever imagined that your loved one will never return home? Or you get a call that he/she is in the hospital due to some incident that occurred? These thoughts give us goosebumps. This is why it is important to create a safe working environment.

VPPPA values our members and their participation in, and support of, our safety and health management community. Our goal is to provide our members with the education, resources, and tools to help prevent worksite injuries and fatalities; and have you return home in the same or better condition than when you left.

Keeping that in mind, we are working on new benefits every day to assist with that goal. Please make sure to update your contact information and renew your membership to ensure the continuation of your membership benefits. You don’t want to miss out on:

• Educational resources to help safety professionals raise the standard for a safe and healthy workplace through professional development, innovation and sharing of best practices among sites and companies engaged in world-class EHS&S practices.

° FREE webinars, live and recorded

° Access to the new VPPPA eLearning Toolbox (Learning Management System)

° Mentoring partnership program

• Discounted rates on exclusive VPPPA events and other associated training and networking opportunities.

° VPPPA’s Safety+ Symposium in Orlando, Florida, September 17–20, 2023

° 2023 Regional conferences and events

• Free publications, including the Leader Magazine—our award-winning quarterly magazine, “On the Level” monthly e-newsletter, and access to the weekly, award-winning VPPPA blog

• Discounted access to our new VPP electronic self-evaluation platform

• Connecting with other members through our Member Directory

• Access to VPPPA Awards and 4 annual Scholarships for members and their families.

The cost of injury prevention is far less than the cost of an injury. A safe and healthy workplace attracts and retains quality employees; it’s an asset to a community, operates more efficiently, and enjoys a healthy bottom line. Both the business and the workers thrive in a safe, healthy, respectful, and caring environment. Please feel free to contact us at membership@vpppa.org if you have any questions.

Self-Assessment Tool

Is your worksite looking to strengthen its EHS&S program in 2023? VPPPA and AuditSoft’s valuable evaluation and improvement tool, VPP Online, can help.

VPP Online is a year-round continuous improvement self-assessment tool that will allow you to collaborate with teams across your site and company to identify potential improvement areas and regularly monitor your site or company’s progress on critical improvement initiatives and, more importantly, identify real-time strategies to address each issue.

If you are interested in a 30-minute demo, please contact Pete Spence at Peter.Spence@AuditSoft.co

For more information visit vpppa.org/vpp-online, contact Heidi Hill at 703-761-6511, or email hhill@vpppa.org

Don’t Miss Out on VPPPA’s Labor Summit Webinar Series

The Labor Summits are monthly 30-minute webinars showcasing a diverse mix of speakers and topics designed to engage workers, both represented and nonrepresented, to jointly and collectively discuss workplace safety. Labor summits last 30 minutes to minimize impacts to work schedules and are available as recordings the same day. Topics range from women in the workforce to building a safety culture within your workplace, new workplace hazards, worker trainer programs, and more. Learn more at www.vpppa.org/webinars

Regional Events

Many VPPPA Regions are hosting events in the coming year. Make sure to visit www.vpppa.org/ regional-events for the most up-todate information on regional events.

www.vpppa.org

VPPPA National Board of Directors

Chairperson

Terry Schulte, NuStar Energy

Vice Chairperson

Dan Lazorcak, Honeywell Secretary

Bill Linneweh, CSP, Hendrickson International Treasurer

Sean Horne, Valero

Director from a Site With a Collective Bargaining Unit

Jack Griffith, Central Plateau Cleanup Company

Director from a Site Without a Collective Bargaining Agent

Vacant

Director from a DOE-VPP Site

Michelle Keever, United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR)

Director from a VPP Contractor/ Construction Site

Brad Gibson, S&B Engineers and Constructors

Director-at-Large

Tim Belitz, Honeywell

Director-at-Large

Daniel Charles, Brandenburg Industrial Service Company

Director-at-Large

Andy Foster, Central Plateau Cleanup Company

Director-at-Large

Shelly Ettel, Amentum

Director-at-Large

Saprena Lyons, Fluor Idaho

Director-at-Large

Christina Ross, Morton Salt

Editor

Kerri Usher, VPPPA, Inc.

Associate Editor

Ariana Hanaity, VPPPA, Inc.

Editorial Mission

The Leader (ISSN 1081-261X) is published quarterly for VPPPA members. The Leader delivers articles from members for members, safety and health best practices, developments in the field of occupational safety and health, association activities, educational and networking opportunities and the latest VPP approvals.

Ideas and opinions expressed within the Leader represent the independent views of the authors.

Postmaster >> Please send address changes to:

VPPPA, Inc. • 7600 Leesburg Pike, East Building, Suite 100 • Falls Church, VA 22043-2004

VPPPA, Inc., the premier global safety and health organization, is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization that promotes advances in worker safety and health excellence through best practices and cooperative efforts among workers, employers, the government and communities.

VPPPA contacts

Chris Williams Executive Director cwilliams@vpppa.org

Sara A. Taylor, CMP Director of Operations staylor@vpppa.org

Heidi Hill Partnership Manager hhill@vpppa.org

To reach the VPPPA National Office, call (703) 761-1146 or visit www.vpppa.org. To reach a particular staff member, please refer to the contact information below.

Lisa Silber Senior Event Sales & Advertising Coordinator lsilber@vpppa.org

Ariana Hanaity Communications Coordinator ahanaity@vpppa.org

Sierra Johnson Senior Education Coordinator sjohnson@vpppa.org

Son Nguyen Membership & Outreach Manager snguyen@vpppa.org

Bryan Knight UX Web Services Programmer bknight@vpppa.org

“My favorite thing was sharing best practices with other companies.” – 2022 attendee “Vast amounts of safety information. Great networking event!” – 2022 attendee

September 17–20, 2023

Orlando World Center Marriott