Annual report for Vermont Safety & Health Council (VSHC) – 2021 Activities
Membership updates
VSHC Members – In 2021 there were 60 members.
VSHC Board Members – The Board of Directors consisted of nine members, one alternate and three liaisons, two from the Vermont Department of Labor and one from the Vermont Department of Health.
Applications for the 2022 Board were due October 31, 2021, and we received 4. Current Board members who applied were removed from the decision-making for appointment. The evaluation team met on November 17, 2021. Congratulations to Shannon Prescott, Amy Morissette, and Suzanne Kotarba on their appointments to 3-year terms. The Board thanks them for their willingness to serve.
Rob Towle with A&M Industrial has been appointed to an alternate Board position. This is in a non-voting capacity and the term is one year. We appreciate Rob’s willingness to dedicate his time to the VSHC BoD.
There will be 3 openings for 2023 and a call for candidates will be made in the Fall of this year.
The 2022 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
- Social Media Chair: Maureen Johnson
- of Labor Liaison: Luke McCarthy and Shawn Barth
- of Health Liaison: Ashwinee Kulkarni
- Board Members: Kathy Brouillette, Becky L’Esperance and Suzanne Kotarba
- Alternate Board Member: Rob Towle
Social Media: Annual report from the Vermont Safety & Health Council (VSHC) Social Media Subcommittee
Standing members are Maureen Johnson, Bob Davison, Suzanna Kotarba, and Teresa Miele, joined at most monthly meetings by another representative of the VSHC Board. The following are the highlights of the Committee’s work in 2021:
- Purchased a Zoom account for use by the Board, Chapters, and the Social Media team for live webinars and recordings
- Launched “Ask the Expert” initiative – short clip featuring an environmental, health & safety (EHS) or related expert being asked and answering a question. Posted on Facebook. We determined that it was appropriate to use a public platform as a service to the EHS community rather than a “members only” benefit.
- Continued use of the VSHC website 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.
- Continued to grow the VSHC Facebook page. We began 2021 with 98 followers and ended with 137. We try to post at several times a week, on EHS and personal well-being topics. We shared posts or created original content over 100 times. We also did a live stream during the VSHC Expo, thanks to a Facebook savvy attendee! All members and others interested in Safety & Health in Vermont are invited to join and contribute to our page.
Looking ahead through 2022, our goals are to continue to use the aforementioned methods to reach and engage members and to grow membership in VSHC. We also intend to resurrect and revitalize the VSHC LinkedIn page.
VSHC activities: Annual Expo – Covid 19 has presented significant challenges in holding this event for the last two years. We agreed to cancel the 2020 Expo due to the pandemic which made 2021 a very special event and get together for our Safety Community. This was held at the Burke Mountain Resort on October 1 and in addition to the excellent lineup of topics and speakers we enjoyed the camaraderie and networking.
Chapter Activities: The Bennington Chapter hosted two Virtual Workshops in 2021.
- Active Response
- Roadside Environmental Hazards
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, 2021 balance in the business checking account was $17,614.99 and the December 31, 2021 balance was $19,051.16.
- The January 1, 2021 balance in the 2nd account was $3,000.00 and the December 31, 2021 balance was $3,000.00.
- This account is used for PayPal transactions (mostly dues and Expo registrations) and money is transferred to the business checking account. We maintain a minimum balance of >$2,500 in accordance with the KeyBank account requirements.
