Annual report for Vermont Safety & Health Council (VSHC) – 2020 Activities
Membership updates
VSHC Members – In 2020 there were 70 members.
VSHC Board Members – The Board of Directors consisted of nine members and three liaisons, two from the Vermont Department of Labor and one from the Vermont Department of Health.
Applications for the 2021 Board were due October 31, 2020, and we received 4. Current Board members who applied were removed from the decision-making for appointment. The evaluation team met on November 18, 2020. Congratulations to Maureen Johnson, Bob Davison and Ashley Fernandez on their appointments to 3-year terms. The Board thanks them for their willingness to serve.
Shannon Prescott with the Richard Group has been appointed to an alternate Board position. This is in a non-voting capacity. We appreciate Shannon’s willingness to dedicate her time to the VSHC BoD.
There will be 3 openings for 2022 and a call for candidates will be made in the Fall of this year.
The 2021 Board roles are as follows:
President: Sue Murray
Vice-President: Bob Davison
Secretary: Amy Morissette
Treasurer: Maureen Johnson
Website Coordinator: Bob Davison
Membership Coordinator: Ashley Moll-Fernandez; co-chair: Shannon Prescott
Governance: Mike O’Hara
Social Media Chair: Maureen Johnson
Dept. of Labor Liaison: Luke McCarthy and Shawn Barth
Dept. of Health Liaison: Ashwinee Kulkani
Board Members: Kathy Brouillette, Michael O’Hara, Becky L’Esperance and Suzanne Kotarba (Coulter)
Alternate Board Member: Shannon Prescott
Social Media: In April 2020, the Vermont Safety & Health Council (VSHC) formed a Social Media Subcommittee to provide direction to the Board of Directors (BoD). The Subcommittee members are Maureen Johnson, Bob Davison, Suzanna Kotarba, and Teresa Miele. The Subcommittee developed a Social media Mission, Purpose, and Strategy for the Council. The following is a high-level synopsis of this document and the Subcommittee’s work in 2020. Details are available from the Subcommittee Chairperson, Maureen Johnson, upon request.
The Council will provide an accurate, up-to-date, and engaging Social Media presence to support workplace and off-the-job safety in Vermont. Our goals are to use Social Media to provide service to members and to grow membership in VSHC.
The plan is to optimize the use of the VSHC website and Facebook page now, and expand to others (e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram) as determined by the BoD. Consideration will be given to membership needs and the availability of BoD and other volunteers to manage content.
The VSHC website continues to provide our members with digital tools to keep everyone informed with our activities as well as safety workshops and events offered across Vermont and throughout New England. Given the circumstances of 2020 the council identified the importance of remote communications. We now offer a video library with secure access to all our members. We have incorporated functional, easy to use forms for users to post upcoming events. We are working in tandem with our Social Media Subcommittee to bring our members cutting edge access to a multitude of platforms anchored by our website.
The VSHC Facebook page continues to grow in both reach and engagement. We began 2020 with 71 followers and ended with 98 followers. We try to post several times a week, on Safety, Health, Environmental, and personal well-being topics. In 2020, there were approximately 160 posts. We recognize that many of these were reposting from other sites, but we also created original content. The goal is to expand this in 2021, with a combination of member-only website content and Facebook posts that can be seen by anyone who is following us. All members and others interested in Safety & Health in Vermont are invited to join and contribute.
VSHC activities: For over two decades the VSHC has hosted an annual Expo but to our great disappointment that was not possible for 2020 due to COVID 19. Our re-schedule date for the Spring of 2021 has also been postponed with a new date of October 1. The venue is the Burke Mountain Resort in Burke, VT.
The list of topics will be posted on the VSHC website, www.vshc.net in the next few months.
Virtual Training Workshop: In November of 2020 the VSHC held a virtual training titled ‘Creating your Pandemic Toolbox’. Kyle Thweatt, Communications and Outreach Coordinator, Vermont Department of Labor fulfilled the facilitator role for this workshop and was an excellent guiding force in a successful event.
The agenda and speakers for this event were:
State of Vermont mandated procedures overview
Dan Whipple – VOSHA Program Manager
Luke McCarthy – Project WorkSAFE Program Manager
Best Business Practices that address General and Construction Industries
Amy Morissette, Dayton Superior
Bob Davison, Precision Valley Communications
Question and Answer Session
Chapter Activities: The Bennington Chapter hosted a Fall Protection Workshop in March.
Chapter activities during 2020 were very minimal due to the COVID 19 Pandemic. We look forward to being able to offer Chapter workshops in the future.
Treasury: VSHC has two accounts at Key Bank – a regular business checking account and an account used to accept PayPal payments and electronic transactions. A summary of account activity follows. A complete ledger is available on request.
The January 1, 2020 balance in the business checking account was $13,023.08
and the December 31, 2020 balance was $17,614.99.
The January 1, 2020 balance in the 2nd account was $4712.47 and the December 31, 2020 balance was $3,000.00.