By Chad Engle, Loss Prevention and Safety Specialist
I am pleased to report that NIRMA had 51 members submit safety committee minutes for the first quarter of 2020. That is excellent! If these members continue holding their meetings and submitting minutes, we could beat the old record.
Please do not let the coronavirus derail your safety committee meetings. I have been performing safety committee assessments via Zoom meetings and telephone calls and I am hearing that some members are not meeting due to the coronavirus meeting restrictions. I don’t think that is a good idea and I want to offer, again, my services of hosting your safety committee meeting via Zoom if you are unable to do so because of meeting distance and attendee limitations. I think now more than ever we need to keep communication going and ensure our employees know what is happening and what to expect. Here at NIRMA we have moved from quarterly safety committee meetings to holding meetings every other week. With the recommendations and restrictions subject to change I think it makes sense to keep all officials and employees on the same page.
Safety committee assessments are going well. If you receive an email from me asking to set one up, there is nothing to worry about. It is a short meeting where we discuss the NIRMA Best Safety Practices for Counties, which of them your county/agency is utilizing and the resources NIRMA provides you to assist in following them. The meetings normally take less than an hour to complete and are painless. It is a great time for me to catch up with safety committee chairpersons, discuss what is new with their county/agency and what is new here at NIRMA.
Keep your eyes open for some exciting developments on NIRMA’s new website! The loss prevention staff are busy working on a course catalog of all the different training topics that we can present on-site once the gathering directives allow. I am also working on NIRMA’s own line of toolbox talks. These should start appearing in the Loss Prevention are of the website within the next month.
We are still here and willing to do whatever we can to help! Please do not hesitate to reach out if needed. I can be reached at chad@nirma.info and 1.800.642.6671. Take care.
