A Message from AHMP
AHMP Welcomes New EPA Head
Register Today for AHMP Leadership Workshop—Free Member Benefit
March 6 AHMP Webinar Series: Learn How to Remove Lead Safely
AHMP National Conference Registration Opens Next Month
January Board of Directors Meeting Update
Recommended Guidelines of Knowledge, Training, and Experience
        for Homeland Security and Domestic Preparedness Professionals
Proactively Prevent OSHA Inspections

A Message from AHMP
Zehra Schneider Graham, CHMM
AHMP President-Elect/Vice President

When times are tough—as they are today—members of professional associations should be able to rely on their organization to stand by them. As a member of the Alliance of Hazardous Materials Professionals (AHMP), I want to tell you a few ways that we are investing in you.

Last year, as the economy was beginning to sour, AHMP's Board of Directors reached several key decisions to make capital investments in the association's infrastructure to better support its more than 4,000 members and to advance its position as a global leader and resource for hazardous materials professionals.

AHMP accomplished these objectives in a number of ways. First, we decided that AHMP relied too heavily on volunteers to accomplish its plans and objectives. Therefore, the Board approved adding new staff in key function areas as a way to reduce overall expenses while retaining the ability to direct positive outcomes. More specifically, we hired Leonore Jordan, CMP as the director of meetings and business development and most recently added Alison Heron as the director of member and chapter relations. These staff additions will provide the association and its members in-house expertise that can be leveraged to benefit the local chapters, which are the foundation of this organization.

Second, AHMP realized there would be a downward shift in member travel allowances and a corresponding increase in their need for more affordable, convenient and accessible educational and training opportunities. As a result, AHMP partnered with Overnite Software, inc. (OSI) to convert the "Essentials of Hazardous Materials Management Course" to an online offering. In the coming weeks, this partnership will be enhanced by the addition of more than 250 additional online courses ranging from environmental, health and safety to first-responders to human resources coursework. These new courses will be priced affordably at $25 to $95 for members.

Lastly, the truest measure of its investment in you is the fact that AHMP is not increasing its member dues for the sixth consecutive year! As I noted at the beginning, when times get tough you need to be able to rely on your professional association to continue providing you products, services and tools that help make and keep you successful. AHMP is making this commitment to each and every one of you—its members—through these new investments and through its actions.

We wish you and your company the best of luck in 2009 and beyond!

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AHMP Welcomes New EPA Head

AHMP President Harry S. Kemp, CHMM welcomed new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, CHMM to her new role guiding the nation's environmental policy.

Jackson, formerly the head of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, was nominated for the EPA post by then President-elect Barack Obama and was recently confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

In the letter to Jackson Kemp said: "You will face challenges in changing the public's perception of the EPA and its decision-making practices, but know that AHMP members stand ready to assist you and your staff."

"We understand that transparency is a key to gaining support from the public and various stakeholders. As you stated in your memo to your staff, we [will] fully disclose the information that forms the basis for our decisions. AHMP, on behalf of its members, stand ready to work with EPA as a partner to affect positive change in environmental policies that involve hazardous materials," emphasized Kemp.

"While at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection you showed a great deal of support for this organization and its Essentials of Hazardous Materials Management Course (formerly the National Overview Course) as a cross-training aid for your staff. Our hope is that you will show similar support by welcoming AHMP and its members to be a part of the public discussion when EHS&S issues are addressed by EPA," Kemp concluded.

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Register Today for AHMP Leadership Workshop—Free Member Benefit

Who says nothing in life is free? One of the best leadership-training events in the entire environmental, health, safety and security (EHS&S) industry—the AHMP Leadership Workshop—is free to all association members.

But to take advantage of this excellent AHMP membership benefit you must register now to secure your place at the event. Already, 81 slots have been filled, only 29 spaces are left.

To be held in St. Louis at the Sheraton Westport Chalet Hotel from March 25 to 27, the 2009 AHMP Leadership Workshop will be an invaluable continuing-education opportunity, whether you are an established professional or a rising newcomer in the EHS&S field.

All sessions will be presented by leadership development consultancy firm BRANTA Worldwide co-founders Rodney Grieve and Robert Greenwood and the firm's strategic partner, Sherry Shaver. The trio is among the country's top leadership-training experts. They will help you fine-tune your leadership skills and make you a more effective leader on the job and in your life.

BRANTA Worldwide is an AHMP corporate partner through the Corporate & Community Relations Partnership Program.

This is an outstanding opportunity to not only learn important leadership skills, but to meet and network with your EHS&S peers during two scheduled tours, the welcome reception, a luncheon and the "Dine-around".

Visit the Leadership Workshop section of the AHMP Web site for more information about this free member benefit and the optional events, to register and to reserve your room at the Sheraton.

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March 6 AHMP Webinar Series: Learn How to Remove Lead Safely

AHMP, as part of its educational Webinar series, will show you how to get lead out of your life. During this informative two-hour session March 6 you will learn how lead gets into the products we use and thus into our lives and how you can deal with lead safely to get it out of your life and those of your loved ones.

During this Webinar Barry R. Weismann, a Certified Safety Professional and a Certified Hazardous Materials Manager^®, will show you how to:

• Enumerate the causes of lead hazards
• Obtain more information about lead hazards
• Work safely with lead
• Prevent lead hazards at home and at work

Weismann possesses more than two decades experience managing lead chemicals. He served as a technical advisor to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development for two years in its lead inspection/risk management program for public housing. Weismann is a certified Lead Project Planner Designer, Lead Supervisor and Lead Inspector/Risk Assessor for both New Jersey and the Environmental Protection Agency's Region 2.

This two-hour educational Webinar will be held March 6 beginning at noon (Eastern Time). It will feature a one-and-a-half hour presentation and a half-hour question-and-answer period. This Webinar is eligible for 1.5 CMP.

AHMP members can access the Webinar for only $105 while nonmembers must pay $140. Click here to register now for this informative and timely Webinar.

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AHMP National Conference Registration Opens Next Month

Online registration for the AHMP premier event—the 2009 National Conference—will open March 16.

The conference will be held August 30 to September 2 at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina. More than 800 professionals are expected to attend.

The AHMP National Conference is the leading industry forum for networking with a wide variety of environmental, health, safety and security (EHS&S) professionals, including holders of the Certified Hazardous Materials Manager^® (CHMM^®) credential, first-responders, compliance officers, plant managers/directors, hazardous materials specialists, government and regulatory representatives, consultants and EHS&S managers.

The AHMP showcase meeting will feature top-notch industry, regulatory and government speakers; an unmatched exhibit hall; numerous continuing-education courses; an Emergency Response Scenario, and countless networking opportunities.

The conference program will focus on the meeting's theme: "EHS&S—Steering a Course for Sustainability", as your association sets a course into the future by discussing the most pressing issues confronting hazardous materials management and EHS&S professionals today. Attendees can earn continuing education credits in several formats during the event's many workshops and seminars.

Hotel reservations are available on a first-come, first-served basis. The Sheraton San Diego will sell out quickly, so book early to secure your room. The negotiated conference rate of $179 is competitive with other hotels during our time in San Diego. AHMP will monitor the rate situation and work closely with the hotel to ensure that we do everything possible for our attendees in this area. Additionally, the Sheraton offers free airport shuttle service for its guests.

For additional information visit the 2009 National Conference section of the AHMP Web site (AHMP will post frequent Web updates in the coming weeks and months) or contact Leonore Jordan at (800) 437-0137 or ljordan@ahmpnet.org.

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January Board of Directors Meeting Update
Elise Allen, CHMM
AHMP Secretary

The 2009 AHMP Board of Directors met for the first time in mid January. The members started the weekend working to complete the second part of the strategic planning the Board had started in September.

In the interim, AHMP had performed an environmental scan of the membership and non-members within the EHS&S field. The objective of this research was to get insight into how the association's internal and external environments will affect the organization and where the Board must chart AHMP's course for the next few years. The results provided this insight. Thank you to every member who completed the survey.

Board members reviewed the information and then discussed how it fit with all the elements of the first part of the strategic plan. We worked on prioritizing the elements that were still standing once we had been through the scan and the draft strategic plan.

To say we reviewed the information is a gross understatement. We all poured over the comments and data as we evaluated each element of the strategic plan to identify the items critical to our members and our organization.

After a day and a half of review and development the Board completed a revised organization strategic plan. AHMP Executive Director A. Cedric Calhoun, CAE discussed the revised plan in great details in the previous issue of this e-newsletter. I encourage you to review that article.

The Board then turned to organization governance. One of the governance items included in the strategic plan is the need to keep members better informed of Board actions. To aid this undertaking we are posting approved Board meeting minutes on the AHMP Web site. These will be posted in the "Members Only" area, so you will need to know your username and password to access this information. Please note that these meeting minutes are posted only after the Board members have approved them.

The Board also received updates, comments and concerns from all standing committees—Finance, Nominations, Government Relations, Member Services, Business Development and Education.

Board members expressed concern about committee goals and direction and the assistance each wants or needs from the Board. We also reviewed the mission and vision of each committee based on the strategic plan. The committee chairs also are to review the charges of their respective technical subcommittees in relation to the strategic plan and compare the activities of each subgroup versus the plan to ensure alignment. Specific areas that are to be reviewed by the chairs are the implementation of the organization's strategic plan and what project's the budget will allow at this time.

Some of the most pressing areas of concern identified by the environmental scan were member benefits (including education) and relations with chapters and regulators.

To support education, a task group was appointed to examine possibly updating the indispensable Hazardous Materials Management Desk Reference. The questions this group will study are whether the desk reference should be revised, and if so, how AHMP will publish an updated version and the format it will take. Once these questions are answered the Board will advise you—the membership. This task force's recommendation is due before the AHMP National Conference in August.

Also, a separate task group was appointed to develop a comprehensive educational plan. It has a March deadline for reporting its recommendation. Lastly, a new task group will review the AHMP Web site and make recommendations at the March Board meeting for expanding the content and improve its overall usability.

The underlying theme of these actions is to meet member needs and to ensure that the organization is on a sound financial track. All members of the Board look forward to serving the organization and ensuring AHMP's growth as the premier organization for hazardous materials professionals.

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Recommended Guidelines of Knowledge, Training, and Experience for Homeland Security and Domestic Preparedness Professionals
AHMP Homeland Security Committee

In response to Homeland Security Presidential Directives (HSPD) 5 and 8 (1), most of which became effective in 2005, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) prepared a new set of standards that include revisions of the National Response Plan, which has been superseded by the National Response Framework (2), and the adoption of a National Incident Management System (NIMS) (3), an "all- hazard" response to Hazardous Material (HazMat) and Terrorist's incidents, which was updated in December of 2008.

These two documents mandate a national preparedness system, a national framework for response, and a national incident management system to be employed by all government agencies, private-sector companies and non-profit organizations that have emergency response responsibilities or on-site hazardous materials, and are currently subject to emergency response requirements. The purpose of the new standards is to provide a coordinated, unified response to future natural disasters, HazMat, and/or terrorism incidents. While private-sector entities cannot be required to be NIMS compliant, DHS strongly encourages private-sector organizations that are directly involved in response operations to have their response personnel receive NIMS training and that the response elements of their organization be NIMS compliant.

The above referenced HSPDs along with numerous Federal and State regulations require individuals who operate in the homeland security arena to possess certain training, certifications and experience.

In response to the above HSPDs and various regulations, the Alliance of Hazardous Materials Professionals (AHMP's) Homeland Security Committee (HSC) was tasked with attempting to identify Certified Hazardous Materials Managers (CHMMs) who possess the unique skill-set that combines their knowledge and experience in both hazardous materials management and homeland security. With the vast number of specialties within the homeland security field, the HSC has determined that too few CHMMs would possess the knowledge and experience in all areas of homeland security. Therefore, the HSC decided to develop two areas of specialization in which CHMMs can demonstrate their knowledge, training, and experience in order to promote themselves as qualified professionals.

The very first item in the Institute of Hazardous Materials Management's CHMM Code of Ethics reads as follows: "A CHMM shall be aware of his or her own competence and not attempt a function beyond his or her level." With that in mind, the HSC attempted to identify certain minimum qualifications CHMMs should possess before promoting themselves as either Homeland Security Professionals or Domestic Preparedness Professionals. Since there are several organizations that currently certify members in various homeland security related areas, AHMP must be careful in how it promotes its members with respect to homeland security. However, the HSC believes that AHMP is the one organization that has members with extensive knowledge of both hazardous materials and homeland security. Therefore, the HSC recommends the following guidelines for CHMMs to follow before they promote themselves as either Homeland Security Professionals or Domestic Preparedness Professionals:

Click here to view the full guidelines document.

Please Note: Local, state and federal laws, as well as the operating procedures of your authority having jurisdiction always take precedence over any information we have provided here. This document and program are provided to raise your awareness level. It is not intended to promote or imply any standard of operations.

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Proactively Prevent OSHA Inspections
Daniel Snyder, M.Ed, CSP, CHMM, CET, CHSP
AHMP Director

While your company's chances of being inspected by the federal Occupational Health & Safety Administration (OSHA) are similar to those of winning the lottery, its chances also could come down to simply dumb luck.

Good Ways for an OSHA Inspection
Generally, OSHA's "Black Hat" (enforcement) inspections increase during Democratic presidential administrations while "White Hat" (compliance assistance) programs are more robust during Republican administrations. However, employee complaints and "unprogrammed" inspections are the most common ways for your facility to get on OSHA's radar for a possible inspection. The best solution to prevent an inspection is a demonstrated safety and health management system.

Site Specific Targeting Program
With approximately four million workplaces covered by OSHA, the federal agency asks employers to report injury and illness rates through its annual data-collection initiative. Employers provide data such as 1) the average number of employees who worked for the employer during the prior calendar year; 2) total employee hours worked; and 3) summary injury and illness data.

Using this data OSHA identifies workplaces with the highest injury/illness rates and each year sends letters to about 14,000 businesses regarding excessive injury and illness rates. This letter should get top management's attention, particularly if the rate is high enough to place a facility into OSHA's Site-Specific Targeting (SST) Inspection Program. OSHA uses this program to select employers for inspection.

Enhanced Enforcement Program
The Enhanced Enforcement Program (EEP) targets employers that repeatedly place their employees at risk. The EEP focuses on cases with extremely serious violations—e.g., a fatality or multiple, willful or repeated violations. If an employer is classified as an EEP it may undergo follow-up inspections, inspections of additional workplaces and more stringent settlement provisions. During the first four years of this program OSHA identified an average of 524 inspections per year as EEP cases. In fiscal year (FY) 2007 alone OSHA identified 719 EEP cases—a record high.

Local Emphasis Programs (LEPs)
Local Emphasis Programs (LEPs) are enforcement strategies implemented at the regional office and/or area office levels. Nationwide, there are more than 150 individual programs (sometimes implemented by multiple offices) that address a range of industries and hazards. During FY2007 OSHA conducted 21,824 LEP-related inspections.

Inspection Activity
In FY2007, OSHA conducted 39,324 inspections, more than its goal of 37,700. Programmed inspections experienced a 2.7 percent increase during the same period, while OSHA conducted 16,288 unprogrammed inspections, including those prompted by employee complaints, accidents and referrals. Improved relations with other government agencies—local, state and other federal authorities—accounted for a 12 percent increase over the past five fiscal years in the number of inspections generated through these government agencies. 

When all this data is analyzed it is apparent that OSHA inspections will increase during 2009 as these more stringent inspection trends continue and a new Democratic administration asserts its authority.

How to Improve
Will your company be next? Not if you take steps now to prevent workplace injuries and to strengthen your workplace safety programs. For instance, each year have an outside safety consultant provide an unbiased analysis of your company's environmental, health and safety (EHS) management systems and identify any regulatory or performance gaps. Effective EHS systems can reduce injuries and related costs and demonstrate OSHA compliance. 

Also consider providing professional development for your supervisors and safety committees. Teach them how to conduct internal audits, perform closed-loop incident investigations, participate in effective meetings and conduct Performance Based Safety Observations. Top managers also may benefit from customized workshops focused on integrating safety into management and supervisory styles. 

Use only certified professionals to meet your company's goals. Remember that your workplace safety culture has to support and sustain the process, so your consultants should serve as change-agents as well as technical experts.

Snyder is managing partner of Nixa, Mo.-based Performance Based Systems. He can be reached at snyder@safetyconsultants.org.

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