June 2016 – President’s Message

It was great seeing many of you in Baltimore, MD at the AIHA national conference last week! As usual, the New Jersey section was well represented and hopefully as I did, you also had a chance to renew old acquaintances and make new contacts for the future.

Our April Past President’s meeting was the best attended event of the year. Historian Tim Rice put together another great presentation with pictures of our many Past Presidents (see photos on page 12 of the June newsletter).

Our last regular meeting of the year is fast approaching on June 9th and it will be an exciting event. We will be presenting our annual Student Scholarship awards (visit http://www.njaiha.org/students/2016-scholarship-awards/ to see the winners) and announcing the results of the election ballots for 2016-2017. Thank you to those members who purchased the NJAIHA polo shirts to support these scholarships. We have a busy evening planned with end of the year reports and two interesting speakers/topics to close out the year.

With Aaron Tripler’s assistance, the letter to the NJ Legislature was sent out expressing our concerns regarding legislature’s proposed bill A381 on mold. (The final letter is reprinted in the June newsletter).

If you haven’t signed up already, there are still openings for this summer’s IH review course. Dr Hank Shotwell is coordinating a stellar line up of speakers again this year starting on Tuesday June 7th at 6:00pm. The course is designed for those needing CIH Certification Maintenance (CM) points, studying for the CIH exam, or need more information on a particular topic; it’s still a great bargain! Check out the following link to the website with the registration info and final speakers schedule http://www.njaiha.org/events/njaiha-summer-review-course/

Sadly this is my last “President’s Message” of the year as well. We had a great year filled with interesting speakers, awards and a successful Professional Development Conference (PDC) to name but a few. It has been a pleasure serving at NJAIHA President. I want to thank Grey Coppi who is leaving us as Membership Services Committee Chair after doing a fine job for so many years. Also thanks to the entire Executive Board for all of their hard work and dedication to our organization. Planning meetings and our annual PDC’s, recruiting and welcoming new members, publishing newsletters and keeping you informed of new issues, meetings and remembering our past traditions and friends is just part of what they do. I also want to wish your next President, Bernie Fontaine Jr., the best of luck and I look forward to continue working with Bernie and the Board in the future.

Best Regards,
Mark Ostapczuk
President NJAIHA