It’s mid-summer and month two of the ASSP Calendar year, with the August heat bearing down on us. Not only is August climatically one of the hottest months of the year, it’s also one of the busiest as we feel the heat of planning and organizing the chapter for the next year. We have a full agenda ahead for this year and good planning with good people can turn our goals into reality. The current situation including response to the Covid 19 pandemic and social unrest turns up the heat even more. How we are able to adapt to an ever-changing environment, will determine how well we ultimately perform. In this era of uncertainty, the status quo cannot be relied upon in charting our course forward. When in uncharted waters, we must be ready and able to quickly adjust our heading in order to avoid obstructions that we will encounter along our journey.
To be able to respond to the foreseen and unforeseen obstacles along the way, we need to be well organized and disciplined while being flexible an adaptive. We need to approach new situations with new approaches and methods, to maneuver within this uncharted territory. In order to achieve this, we need a chapter that runs smoothly, has an established course ahead and yet can still react. We need to have a set of guiding principles (bylaws) that are clear, concise, understandable yet remain flexible. Our talent needs to be organized to be effective and efficient through a workable committee structure. And we need to be responsive to our membership, to provide the tools and support for safety professionals on all levels, students to masters and those along the way.
The journey ahead will not be one of all smooth sailing. We will find ourselves in troubled waters along the way. As a volunteer organization, this is not a sightseeing jaunt, but rather an explorative adventure. We will profit by what we encounter and overcome and by what we learn along the way. Working together as a team we can have a successful journey. I look forward to the journey ahead.
Please contact me with questions or comments, feedback is requisite to staying on course.
Respectfully,
Jim
James F Kane
Chesapeake Chapter President