By Chad Engle, Loss Prevention and Safety Manager
Money for Minutes winners have been announced, and Money for Minutes awards totaling $7,000 have been distributed. Congratulations to the winners, they will be recognized in upcoming Interchange articles.
I wanted to take this last opportunity to encourage NIRMA members to be sure to get that first safety committee meeting on the calendar before the end of March. The upcoming budget has not yet been considered by the NIRMA Board, but if funding is approved for the Money for Minutes program, you must act now to be eligible for the drawing. Qualifying is simple, hold at least one safety committee meeting each quarter, and during the meeting discuss any accidents/injuries/events that happened during the previous quarter and develop recommendations to prevent recurrence of similar incidents, then submit those minutes to [email protected]. If you miss the first quarter, you are out of luck, and you cannot win if you do not play.
Some interesting statistics that I would like to share: 45 member safety committees submitted at least four sets of minutes for calendar year 2024. The good news is that this is up 22% over last year, kudos to those members that support and protect their employees with an active loss prevention program. The bad news is that NIRMA is comprised of 113 members that are all required by the Nebraska Department of Labor to have a safety committee and less than half of them do. I know that we are all busy, but NIRMA has member committees that meet every other month and members that meet monthly and accomplish something meaningful by doing so. I am comfortable saying that if loss prevention and employee safety are important to your organization, you can find the time to meet at least once per quarter.
It is also important to note that only 39 of the 45 committees that submitted at least four sets of minutes qualified for the chance to receive an award. It is essential to note in your committee’s minutes what incidents were discussed and what recommendations were made to prevent recurrence. Simply having the meetings does not mean that a committee will qualify. If there were no events to discuss simply include that in the minutes instead. When there are not any incidents to discuss, which is a good thing, I urge the committee to discuss near misses or some other safety moment that a member encountered recently. I shared with our committee a recent event where I lost traction on black ice on the interstate. That really got my attention, so it made sense to share it with others.
This spring I will be setting up meetings with safety committees and safety chairpersons to discuss NIRMA’s Best Safety Practices and the loss prevention resources provided to NIRMA members. My initial focus will be on those members that did not meet during 2024. I look forward to working with you all during the upcoming year. As always, if you feel that I can be of assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected] or 1.800.642.6671. Take care and be safe.
