January 2017 President’s Message

The holidays were a wonderful time to share with all of our family and friends. It was also a great time to reflect the hard work and contributions from NJAIHA members who worked on the planning committees for the 2016 Professional Development Courses (PDCs) and 70th annual Northeast Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition (NEIHce). The results from exit poll survey from the PDCs and the NEIHce were outstanding. Survey results show that many individuals, from our neighboring local sections, attended these events for professional development, re-certification points, and networking. High marks were reported with 92.9% of the NEIHce attendees believe the event helped them gain what they wanted to accomplish. The three most important aspects were the topics, networking, and the selected speakers.

Our success will continue into 2017. This is going to be another busy year and we are soliciting the help of our membership to meet our goals and objectives set forth in the action plan. Some of our members are reaching out to local high schools and talking about the NJ Youth@Work Talking Safety program. This is the time of giving back to our profession. Many administrators and faculty members see the value of lesson but they are afraid of the commitment on an annual basis. The message can be presented in a 45-minute classroom period and it should be delivered annually to remind students, who are seeking employment, that health and safety is important both at work (e.g., summer job, part-time work during school, and selecting a trade after graduation) and everything that that they do for recreation, vacation, hobbies, and other personal initiatives. If you want to become an Outreach Coordinator and present to school districts, please contact Candice Kowalewski.

We want you to enjoy collaborating, networking and learning at the upcoming dinner meetings! Our Executive Committee is working hard to enhance our membership engagement and cover the current topics of interest. NJAIHA continues offering members the “Loyalty Rewards Program”. Members who attend any five (5) dinner meetings will get the 6th dinner free!! Unfortunately, the program cannot be extended to PDCs or the NEIHce. Also, if you sign-up five (5) new or former members in our “Member Get-a-Member” program, we will offer you a free dinner. It is important to note that there are no time constraints for either program. Contact Candice Kowalewski with any questions.

You may have seen our continuous postings on social media – Facebook and LinkedIn. Our objective is to connect more with GenX and GenY (Millennials) and begin a deeper conversation of the issues that affect you and your family, along with the workforce, public, or environment that you serve. There are many peer-reviewed articles and other nationally recognized resources, which may be of interest to our members. Recently, we started “Tell Me Your Story” which features a selected article in our newsletter. If you have a compelling story, case study or research; contact Mark Ostapczuk.

We are continuing to seek more vendors to advertise in our monthly newsletter and website, and help sponsor our monthly dinner meetings. As a bonus, we will promote your business by advertising on Facebook. For the corporate sponsors and exhibiting vendors who participated in the NEIHce, we promoted their business before, during, and after the event. We provided additional advertising in the special December issue of the newsletter for those who advertisers on our website. Our objective is to add business value to attract new customers and help them showcase their products and services. If you would like to advertise, complete the application on the website. Jack Zybura can provide more information about posting any information to the website or social media.

As a reminder, student scholarship applications for the AIHA Foundation are due in Feb 2017. We sent our members an email announcement and posted the opportunity on social media. If you are an AIHA national member, the information is available on their website. We also need your support for the NJAIHA student scholarships. We will continue selling the piqué polo shirts with the NJAIHA logo to raise revenue to support the student scholarships. Many of these shirts were sold during the NEIHce. We are holding our pricing structure so that more of members can afford these items. These shirts can be proudly worn to any NJAIHA venue and they make a great gift. If you would like to make a purchase, contact Craig Doolittle or visit the NJAIHA website for details.

The Executive Committee is updating the bylaws and the operations manual in 2017. Both of these important documents have not been updated since 2013. Bylaws represent the written rules for conduct of the NJ Executive Committee. One area of interest is deeper understanding of conflict of interest and fiduciary responsibilities by NJ Executive Committee members. The operations manual helps us construct the framework to meet the policy requirements established in the bylaws. If anyone has any written comments to make change to either of these documents, contact Hank Shotwell.

We continue to represent NJAIHA at the quarterly NJ State Industrial Safety Committee (NJSISC) meetings. The last meeting in Dec 2016 revealed the construct of an Occupational Health and Safety Management program at Rutgers University School of Public Health (RUSPH). As you may be aware that industrial hygiene and safety was removed as a discipline some years ago, and replaced with an environmental science program. However, the pendulum is swinging back.

The business value of industrial hygiene and safety is being recognized more in business as a tool for risk management, advancement of technology, and a driver for economic, social, and governance of the workforce, public, and environment. We seek input from the membership to collaborate with RUSPH leadership in support this new career track in whatever capacity permitted. It is envisioned that NJAIHA members may provide indirect guidance to students seeking interest in industrial hygiene career, lecture on emerging topics, networking at monthly dinner meetings, and possibly even create a student chapter with a mentoring component. If you need more information, you can contact me.

NJAIHA continues to collaborate more with our neighboring local sections. Philadelphia, Metro NY, and NJ sections of AIHA agreed to post each other dinner meeting announcements. The objective is to provide better coordination of regional events for the membership of these local sections.

In closing, I hope to see you and a friend at the Thursday January 19th dinner meeting at Snuffy’s! Look for the email announcement and/or posting on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Best Regards,
Bernard L. Fontaine, Jr., CIH, CSP, FAIHA
President NJAIHA