8th Annual - VERMONT WORKPLACE SAFETY CONFERENCE

Thursday, May 13, 2010
9:00 am - 3:30 pm
Doubletree Hotel (former Clarion)– 1117 Williston Rd., Burlington

Sponsors: The Partnership In Safety (VT Small Business Development Ctr., Project WorkSAFE & Green Mountain Coffee Roasters’ Foundation)
Platinum Sponsor: VELCO
Gold Sponsor: Vermont Safety & Health Council

8:00 am - 9:00 am Registration/refreshments

9:00 am - 9:30 am Welcome: Pat Moulton-Powden – Commissioner, VT Dept. of Labor – Governor’s Workplace Safety Awards – Governor James Douglas

9:30 am - 10:30 am Presentation: “People-Focused Safety", the Next Generation in Behavioral Techniques - Lee Marchessault of Workplace Safety Solutions; & The Softer Side of Safety - Mike Cromis -Vermont Electric Power Co. (VELCO)

10:30 am - 11:00 am Break (vendor tables) - Leave your business card for raffle

11:00 am - 12:00 pm Presentation: OSHA Recordkeeping (including What really IS the difference between a Recordable & a Reportable?) – Scott Meyer, Project WorkSAFE; Pauline Singley, President Emeritus VT Safety & Health Council

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm LUNCH with Vendor Raffle

1:00 pm – 1:30 pm The Workplace on the Road: Norm James, Project RoadSafe; Lt. John Flanagan, VT State Police;

1:30 pm – 2:30 pm “Ask the Safety & Health Experts” Panel: Steven Monahan –
Director VT Dept. of Labor, Workers Compensation Division; Fred Satink – VT League Of Cities & Towns; Dan Whipple – VOSHA Compliance Assistance; Kelly Casale – Hackett Valine & MacDonald; Tom Wertman – HP Hood Safety Mgr.;

2:30 pm – 3:30 pm Presentation: “Taking the Next Step: Integrating Safety & Wellness” Louise Lynch – Injury & Health Management Solutions; Lori Smith of Hickock and Boardman; Justin Worthley, Rhino Foods General Mgr.

Please visit our vendors and leave your business card for a gift raffle

To Register:Click Here

TOPIC DESCRIPTIONS:
• “People-Focused Safety", the Next Generation in Behavioral Techniques Behavior-Based safety was a tool that was developed to combat the limitations of traditional safety regulations primarily driven by mechanical or element hazard risks. This program goes a step further to empower all employees to act as the "safety liaison" for the company by understanding regulations, making decisions through committees, performing self audits or investigations; and implementing corrective action. Safety Managers turn into facilitators in this model. Leading indicators are used to measure program effectiveness rather than relying on lagging indicators I.e. OSHA or experience modification rates. Ideas for incentives are discussed with associated precautions. Speaker: Lee Marchessault of Workplace Safety Solutions. Mike Cromis of Vermont Electric Power Co. (VELCO) will cover how this methodology works and provide real examples of implementation within a high hazard industry.

• OSHA Recordkeeping (including What really IS the difference between a Recordable & a Reportable?) – Scott Meyer, Project WorkSAFE, Director; Pauline Singley, President Emeritus VT Safety & Health Council, addresses some of the difficult questions of OSHA Recordkeeping, such as: Is this injury really work related? Should I record it now or wait until I know what really happened? When does medical care become more than First Aid? How do I track restricted or modified duty? When do I stop recording lost days? The presentation also highlights the new OSHA/VOSHA Emphasis and Audit Program for Recordkeeping, taking a look at what OSHA/VOSHA may be looking on your OSHA Recordkeeping Logs and which companies may be more likely to be audited.

• Taking the Next Step: Integrating Safety & Wellness
Both wellness and occupational health and safety (OHS) have benefits to employees and employers alike. While both can be implemented independent of each other, there are proven additional benefits to merging or integrating the two programs into one overarching Employee Health, Safety, and Wellness (HSW) Program. This creates a "synergistic" relationship where the total is greater than the sum of the parts. Rhino Foods will discuss how this is working at their business. Speakers: Louise Lynch of IHMS; Lori Smith of Hickock and Boardman; HR/Safety Representative from Rhino Foods

SPEAKER BIOS:
Mike Cromis is currently Safety Manager for Vermont Electric Power Co., with over 22 years experience in the Occupational Safety & Health Arena. Mike serves on the Safety & Health Council of Northern New England Executive, is a Board Member of the Vermont Safety & Health Council and is President of its’ Rutland Chapter - Area Safety Health Committee, and is Secretary/Vice Chair of the Energy Council of the Northeast Employee Safety & Occupational Health Committee.

Lieutenant John Flannigan has been a member of the Vermont State Police since 1991. He currently serves as Commander of the Traffic Safety Unit and oversees traffic safety, crash reconstruction, commercial vehicle, and underage drinking enforcement and education programs for the Vermont State Police. Lt. Flannigan is the field coordinator for the Vermont Drug Evaluation and Classification Program and represents the Department of Public Safety as a member of the Vermont Alcohol and Drug Abuse Advisory Council. He is a certified Standardized Field Sobriety Test Instructor and Drug Recognition Expert. In 2004, Lt. Flannigan received the Vermont State Police - Division Commander’s Award in recognition of outstanding leadership in traffic enforcement.

Norman James has managed Project RoadSafe for the past eight years, first at the Vermont Chamber of Commerce and for the past four years, at the Vermont Department of Labor. Prior to his tenure as Vice President for Programs with the Vermont Chamber, Norm was Executive Vice President at the Barre Granite Association. He also has extensive experience in news reporting for radio and TV in Vermont, and served Governor Thomas Salmon as a special assistant.

Scott J. Meyer is VT Department of Labor, Program Manager/ Industrial Hygiene Engineer Vermont OSHA consultation Program (Project WorkSAFE). Other job duties have included: Ingestion Pathway Environmental Sampling Team Director for the Vermont State Radiological Emergency Response Team; Safety officer for the Vermont Department of Health, Health Operations Center; Member of the Vermont Safety & Health Maintenance Committee; Vermont Farm Health Task Force; and Vermont Asthma Advisory Panel. Professional Memberships: New York State Guides Association (licensed Climbing Guide); American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists; AgriSafe Network. Publications: Centers for Disease Control; Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Associated With a Propane-Powered Floor Burnisher - Vermont, 1992. Education: Bachelors Degree in the Environmental Sciences from the State University of New York and Johnson State College.

Fred Satink –has joined the Vermont League of Cities & Towns where he is able to apply his 24 years of safety and health experience to the benefit of Vermont municipal employers. Fred received a BS degree from UVM in 1979 and began his career with the State of Vermont where he worked for nearly 14 years. He worked in several positions there, including Sanitarian, Epidemiologist Associate and eventually Industrial Hygienist where he worked in VOSHA compliance and voluntary compliance programs for nearly 9 years. Fred left the VOSHA program to assume duties as Employee Loss Prevention Manager at the Central Vermont Medical Center. After leaving CVMC, Fred worked for a succession of monoline and multi-line insurance carriers for 8 years, serving in loss control and loss control management positions. Fred subsequently worked for Smith Bell & Thompson for 5 years, serving as a National Programs Risk Manager, with a particular focus on development of a safety website, workers’ compensation operations and national clients and brokers.

Pauline Singley currently serves in the role of independent teacher, trainer and coach teaching and consulting in the fields of Safety, HR and Supervisory Skills and Business Management throughout the State. She is President Emeritus of the Vermont Safety and Health Council and brings a wealth of diverse experience and expertise to all her current activities, gleaned from over 30 years of business, safety and risk management practice in the areas of local government, manufacturing, and health care administration. Pauline holds a B.A. degree in Business management from Johnson State College in Johnson, Vermont and a Masters in Administration from St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont.

Lori Smith joined Hickok & Boardman Group Benefits in 2008 as their Health Management and Wellness Consultant. Lori helps clients improve the coordination of their health management and wellness initiatives with their overall benefit strategy, resulting in a more fully integrated approach in the areas of plan design, communication and measurement of success. Prior to joining HBGB, Lori served as Corporate Liaison for Community Health Improvement at Fletcher Allen Health Care. She has been advising companies on wellness and health management initiatives for fifteen years and has worked in the health care industry in various roles since 1985. Lori currently serves on the Vermont Blueprint for Health’s Employer Work Group Subcommittee for Wellness and is a member of the Burlington Business Association Board of Directors. She also volunteers to help manage the Ronald McDonald House and chairs The Friends of CVU parent organization. Lori graduated from the University of Vermont with a B.S. in Physical Therapy.

Tom Wertman, CDS, serves as a Regional Environmental, Health and Safety Manager for HP Hood LLC. He is a member of the Maine Chapter American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) and has been a member for the past several years. Tom is also a member of the National Safety Council of New England. Tom’s area of coverage includes Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and northern New York assisting and working with local management with all EHS matters. His experience also includes working in the Distribution/Fleet fields involving driving safety, DOT compliance and motor vehicle incident investigation for the New England and northern New York regions. Tom has been steadily employed in the dairy industry for 25 years and most recently by HP Hood LLC since 1990.

Daniel Whipple, OHST. Dan has worked for VOSHA for over 12 years, serving nearly 10 years as a compliance officer, accident/fatality investigator, discrimination investigator and presently as Compliance Assistance Specialist (CAS)/Green Mountain Voluntary Protection Programs (GMVPP) Coordinator. Prior to his employment at the State of Vermont, Dan graduated with an Associate of Applied Science from New Hampshire VOCTEC College in Berlin. He than spent ten years in the machine tool industry holding a number of different machining and supervisory positions. Dan is a 15 year member of the Charleston Volunteer Fire Department, where he holds the rank of Second Assistant Chief.

Justin Worthley is the General Manager at Rhino Foods in Burlington. Justin is a member of Rhino’s Management Team and has overall responsibility for operations/manufacturing, HR and safety functions. He has helped lead significant improvements in Rhino’s safety record over the past four years, decreasing the E-Mod rate from 1.36 to .92, and lowering recordable injuries from 37 in 2006 to 11 in 2009. Prior to joining Rhino, Justin worked at Bosch, Controlled Energy Corporation, Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s.