January 2016 President’s Message

Happy New Year NJAIHA members! We wish everyone warm wishes for a safe and healthy 2016. Last year was a great year for NJAIHA and we hope to continue with and even better 2016!

Thank you to all who attended the NEIHC and the December PDC’s. Once again our most successful event of the year! We look forward to continuing this trend in 2016 by offering a variety of meeting topics starting with our January meeting on the 21st.

This month’s before dinner topic: Use & Application of Nanotechnology in the Construction Industry. The discussion will explore the benefits and advantages; new and existing risks of exposure and use of the technology; health risk to employees and consumers; potential environmental exposures; and how nanotechnology is now changing our world for the better. Our Speaker Nina Nobile, MA, CSP, HEM is a Senior Risk Engineer at Zurich. The after-dinner topic: Changing Your Safety Culture to Prevent Accident, Illness and Injury. This presentation will focus on how unsafe attitudes/behaviors are the underlying cause of mishaps. A training demo will show how these concerns can improve human relations and business performance. Our Speaker Donald Theune is the Principal and Co-Founder of the Donnic Consulting Group, LLC.

One of our 2015 goals continues to be our main theme for 2016. We want you at the meetings! If you haven’t heard, NJAIHA is offering a “Loyalty Rewards Program”. Members who attend any five (5) dinner meetings will get the sixth dinner free!! If you sign-up five new or former members, NJAIHA will offer you a free dinner as well. We are always interested in hearing from anyone who wishes to speak at any of our monthly dinner meetings, PDCs, or our annual regional conference.

NJAIHA has already started planning for our 2016 Student Scholarships. We are promoting the funding by selling NJAIHA logo polo shirts. All proceeds will fund the scholarship for a deserving student. Please spread the word about this great opportunity for our students to participate in the process. Please check out our website (http://www.njaiha.org/students/polo-shirt-fundraiser/) or contact Grey Coppi, Membership Committee Chair (membership@njaiha.org) about the details. You can also help out too!

We are still looking for a volunteer to be NJAIHA’s Outreach Coordinator. This is an important opportunity to assist both AIHA National and NJAIHA to increase awareness of our profession as a career and the benefits of being a member of our local chapter.

I look forward to seeing all of you at our January 21 meeting at Snuffy’s!

Best Regards,
Mark Ostapczuk
President NJAIHA