West Michigan Chapter of the ASSE

Oct 2004 News

Editor's 2-Cents - Women's Work?

I spent the last three days with a group of safety professionals going through training in fire protection. The highlight was probably watching my first fire pump test and getting an idea of the power and quantity of water that such a system can generate to improve fire safety. The class of 16 contained a mix of young and old safety folks. One had spent a year in Iraq before coming back and starting his "real career"!

What I found interesting was the mix of people and the backgrounds that brought them into safety. For one thing it was refreshing to see that we had 4 women in the class. Still not as high as it probably will be, but a vast change from 18 years ago when I started.

Our Chapter is seeing the same changes in our meetings. Where we once had one or two women who attended we are seeing many more. Our September meeting had an incredible turnout of 56 people. Of those 9 were of the fairer gender. The ratio was perhaps a bit lower than normal as we had many "electricians" who still tend to be more typically male.

There is no real "message" here. You might assume I tend to notice the females who show up at our meetings more than I notice the males. You might be assuming correctly. However I also find that, in general, the women tend to be more communicative, more observant and more patient. All of these are good things, and I, for one, welcome each and every one of you and hope you make that decision in your busy lives to make ASSE one of the priorities and become more involved.

- Eric Longman

Meeting Sponorship

This year the program committee has decided to seek sponsorships for our meetings. This offers a great way to publicize your company to a group of well over 200 safety professionals! We thank Approved Fire Protection for sponsoring the September meeting and have Accident Fund Insurance as our sponsor for October. Feyen-Zylstra - a Western Michigan electrical contractor is planning to sponsor our November meeting. Sponsors offset the cost of the breakfast and benefit by being recognized in the newsletter and also at the meeting.

So sign up fast with Kevin Quigley if you want to sponsor a meeting. Kevin's phone is 616-669-8095

Some of you are sharp enough to ask - Why do we need to pay if our breakfast is being paid for? That's a fair question and the Board is looking at ways to put the extra money to good use. We are exploring options such as student scholarships, purchase of ASP and CSP study guides, assisting for more members to go to ASSE conferences if there is a need and their company won't pay for it, etc.

What's Shakin??

This section provides an opportunity to brag abut promotions, certifications, announce job changes and generally keep track of what is happening in the safety community. If you, or someone you know, has reason to brag - please let us know

Marty Lalick, Jr. CSP Marty has taken a job with L-3 communications in Grand Rapids. He will be a Safety Professional who reports directly to the VP and the Director of Facilities, where he will be in charge of safety for the entire site. The company makes aviation instrumentation and has contracts with the Department of Defense and various aircraft manufactures. He started working there right after Labor Day.

Tom Dyer Over the summer, Tom Dyer had accepted an offer to become the Corporate Safety Director for a group of companies headquartered in Reed City, MI and operating in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Hydaker-Wheatlake serves the electrical utilities and telecommunication markets in the construction and maintenance of substations, transmission and distribution systems, from point of generation to point of consumption. This includes line work, tower erection, direct boring and underground installations. Reed City Power Line Supply provides material distribution, acquisition and consultation to the electrical, gas and communications markets. They also perform certified Dielectric Testing services on vehicles, hot sticks and rubber protective equipment. Hydrolake Leasing & Service manufactures and treats wood utility poles and distributes thousands annually throughout the mid-west. Reed City GMC sells and services light and medium duty trucks, along with serving the industry through chassis transfers, steel fabrication, hydraulic repairs and maintaining specialized equipment such as aerial devices. They are a certified ALTEC repair facility. Tom welcomes the opportunity to network with those in similar fields or facilitate potential clients looking for quality services. tom_dyer@rcpls.com

Scented Night Lights & Penny Brown?

It happened again two days ago. I received an "e-mail alert" from a friend. In this case it concerned the disappearance of "Penny Brown" and urged us to watch for Penny and forward the e-mail on. This one, as usual, came from someone who I have high regard for, and naturally I wanted to help.

A week earlier a friend wanted to warn me of the dangers from fire when using a certain scented night light. Another sent me something about renewing the draft. I'm sure we can all relate!

I've found an excellent source to help me determine the truth of such e-mails, and would like to share it with you. www.snopes.com is a fun website just because of its ability to answer some of those nagging questions that keep popping up. (Hypodermic needles in pay phones for example) They also tackle such interesting questions as "Was the plane that Buddy Holly crashed in really called American Pie..?" or "How did Catherine the Great really die?"

Anyway, it takes only a minute or two to check out each of these at this website and in each case they offer what appears to be a well thought out, researched discussion of the "rumor" and origins. You will find you can spend a lot of time - but you are sure to learn some things you always wondered about but never knew!

By the way - in case you are wondering - Penny isn't missing, the night lights aren't really dangerous and the draft isn't being started. Oh, and the plane was not "Amerian Pie" and Catherine the Great apparently died a normal death.

Seeking ASP/CSP Study Guides

In the past several years the chapter purchased study guides for our members for the CSP and ASP exams. We have lost track of these and would appreciate any assistance you can offer as to their location. If you know where they are or who might have them please contact Eric Longman.

If we don't find them, or if they seem out of date we may be purchasing new ones for our members.

If anyone has copies that they no longer need (having passed the tests) and would like to share with our membership we would love to put them to use.

Interview With Our President - Dan Grzegorski

Q: Dan, You've been around safety for a long time - where did you get your start?
A: I worked at Steelcase for 22 years but not directly having to do with safety. Then I moved on to Herman Miller. I held various jobs there in Manufacturing & Distribution. My first job in Safety was for Herman Miller. This was for the Highway and City fleets. This job involved DOT regulations, training, and accident investigations etc. The following year I was given the opportunity to be the Safety Specialist for the Panel Plant. I held this job for 7 years before being downsized due to a plant closing in February 2002.

Q: How did you handle that lay-off?
A: I kept busy looking for work, and really used my .networking. from ASSE in that search. One of my more interesting jobs was while seeking other full time work, I worked for Georgetown Township part- time in the cemetery. There I mowed grass and also assisted the cemetery sexton with burials. I landed a job at Tower Automotive in Greenville for a short period of time with the Safety Department until being offered a job at Knape & Vogt here in Grand Rapids as Corporate Safety Manager.

Q: What do you do at Knape & Vogt?
A: My responsibilities are for both KV locations . one here in Michigan and the other in Muncie, Indiana. Total work force is about 800 employees. Today.s safety profession faces many challenges. I feel fortunate to be able to continue working in this field.

Q: And while it may seem that you work 24/7 in safety I.m sure there are other activities in your life that keep you busy?
A: My outside of work life includes being a paid-on-call Firefighter/EMT for 27 years. I have been married for 29 years to my wife Linda who drives school bus for Jenison Public Schools. We have 3 children, Eric 24, is a Secondary school-teacher and Football coach in Kokomo, Indiana, Andy 22 is a builder in the area, and our daughter Becky is a student at Hillsdale College and a player on the volleyball team. We follow her team from August until November and try to work in seeing a football game in Kokomo when we can.

Q: Do you have any specific goals for ASSE during this year as president?
A: One thing I'd like to accomplish this year for the ASSE is to keep the interest in our organization and get as much involvement as possible from our members. When I hear about other chapters and the lack of participation and meetings I feel great being a part of an organization that we have in West Michigan.