The meeting commenced at 1:35.
Bob Gruel, Environmental Technology Division, and Nancy Isern, Environmental and Health Sciences Division, were announced as new members of the VPP Steering Committee.
Larry Musen, a DOE staff member who has previous VPP experience and who has been assigned to PNNL on other business, was also introduced. Larry will be providing our committee with his VPP expertise.
Outgoing Members
Joy Rosscup, former co-chair, accepted a new job outside the company in September. A replacement will be discussed at the next meeting.
National Convention (Washington D.C.)
Eight of our committee members attended the national conference in Washington, D.C. The convention consisted of a number of breakout sessions over the course of 2 days. Topics covered included self evaluations and presentations, the VPP process and application, documentation of corrections and closure of concerns, the need for involvement in accident investigations, worker involvement in new procedures, and the need to measure progress against activities.
Peggy Williams felt that this was an enlightening conference. She noted that we seem to be ahead of the others, and was impressed with the enthusiasm of the attendees and their pride of ownership in the program. She also felt that this conference was a good gauge for us as we proceed farther into the process, and agreed that a good approach would be to tell staff why they want to be involved and to get them involved.
Roby Enge discussed the presentation on incentives. The presentation stated that we shouldn't incentivize misreporting, we should incentivize accident reporting. The presentation also reinforced the belief that we control the safety of the work that we perform (for example, staff are encouraged to report when procedures don't work).
Vern Madson discussed the WIPP presentation. WIPP, a burial site, is now a triple crown site (ISO 14001 or 14002, VPP, and ISM). Previously, the miners who were employed there had the attitude "If you're a miner, expect injuries." VPP was then presented to WIPP employees -- with a $60K budget, incentives were used for safety and positive work was reinforced.
The September 24, 1999, presentation by Bruce Madsen to the Transportation staff was a great success! December 6 through December 10 is the target date to have Bruce return to PNNL. Drue Collins stated that Bruce will swap three presentations in return for video production at EMSL. Drue is checking into the legal and copyright issues before the trade can become effective.
Vern said that the attendees of the September presentation completed an evaluation afterwards, and that the presentation rated a 4.9 out of a possible 5.
The Battelle Auditorium was discussed as a potential site for the December presentations. The thought was that the secretarial/clerical staff would attend the first presentation, the technicians and research and development staff would attend the second, and the crafts and support staff would attend the third. A concern was raised that crafts staff may not be able to get the time off to attend; however, it was mentioned that Karla Gaither has been notified of the upcoming presentation. Word needs to be spread so that all staff will want to attend. An aggressive campaign needs to be directed at the other divisions/directorates to get buy-in from the management for staff to attend. If all goes well, it was proposed that we do something community oriented.
Volunteers for the upcoming presentations will be discussed at the next meeting.
The committee will be handing out safety-related items (e.g., glow sticks, reflective stickers) at the Children's Halloween Party on October 28 at the Battelle Auditorium. A 3 ft x 3 ft VPP poster was also made up to place on the table for advertising purposes. A call for volunteers to help with the VPP booth was also made.
INEEL hired a Star consultant to come to their site and check background, figure out the weaknesses, etc. This process is supposed to save money in the long run. PNNL has inquired into the process, and a proposal was forwarded to PNNL. The process is very expensive ($26K for a 1-week examination). Larry has attended a number of these evaluations. His advice is to bring in one or two individuals for each of the five tenets and have them evaluate our site. PNNL would then take the path forward to correct any findings, then DOE can perform their evaluation.
Jeanie Dixon stated that she had not heard anything about the INEEL visit, and that there is not enough communication within the committee and among the subcommittees. Ideas included weekly updates and a newsletter. It was also requested that the URLs to various sites be posted on our Web site. Such an effort will require communication from the committee members to the site's pagemaster (me).
Subcommitte Reports
Jim Roberts, Hazard Prevention and Control subcommittee, asked for volunteers to his subcommittee.
Todd Hart, Worksite Analysis subcommittee, said his subcommittee met the first of September. They have an electronic version of the application and are getting ready to send it out.
Drue Collins, Management Commitment subcommittee, says he is trying to get an electronic version of the application and may scan a hard copy, if necessary.
Russ Meicenheimer, Employee Involvement subcommittee, mentioned the recent OSHA changes to VPP. Russ stated that he wants an original copy to compare with the changes.
Rich Garretson, Safety and Health Training subcommittee, said he needs to set up a meeting next week, as his subcommittee hasn't met in 2 months. He also would like volunteers, and will be contacting individuals whose names he has been given to see if they are interested.
Path Forward
Budget
This year's budget is $20K up front, and possibly $10K to $20K at mid-year.
Final Business
1. We need to develop a list of safety committees for each building.
2. Roby mentioned the Field Change Analysis process. If a procedure is wrong, the user should say that it is wrong. The procedure must be changed in a quick time frame. The issue is being looked into, and Roby would like input.
