Welcome!

Welcome to the new ASSE St. Louis Chapter website!

President's Corner: July 2009

Hello and welcome to a new year at ASSE! Our year starts in July, we get to welcome some new officers to our team this month. Mark Logue is Vice President; you may recall he set up the tour for us at his workplace Bio Mieurx back in January. Erin Mutert was elected to serve as secretary; you’ll see her at the sign in table with Bill. She’s off to a great start; she has things more organized than I ever had dreamed of! And we all know Bill; he takes our money each month! We are lucky to have him as our treasurer again, it’s a tough job and we appreciate his hard work. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Sheila Schmidt. I’ve worked in Loss Control at American Family Insurance since 2003. I’ve been an ASSE member since college at good ole’ CMSU (back when it was still CMSU). Currently I live in Wentzville with my husband Jake, our four month old son Jackson and two Boston terriers; Austin and Bernard.

Tim Barth will continue to bring us top notch speakers. He is always open for suggestions; so if you have heard someone give a good presentation lately let Tim know. The chairpersons for membership, government affairs and public relations have stayed the same with Dianne Gibbs, Tom Lawrence and Tim Myatt leading each of those committees. AJ will be taking over awards and honors. Two new faces to the team are JaNola Rigsby and Rob Miller. JaNola is with Code Red Safety and will be our new webmaster and newsletter chair. Rob is with Ameren and will serve as the scholarship chairperson. Be sure to tell them hello and welcome aboard!

A special thank you goes out to Chris Merli for a successful year as president. It was a great year and her hard work is very much appreciated. We’ve still got her for one more year as past president. Another thank you to Dianne Gibbs for putting on another outstanding golf tournament! We’ve heard nothing but great reviews on the food, players, course, weather and prizes. If you missed out this time, mark your calendars for June 4, 2010. A final thank you goes out to Mike McCormick who is retiring from our board after many years of service. He worked his way through all of the officer positions, and served as webmaster and newsletter chair and has helped with anything else that’s needed to be done.

I’m looking forward to another great year with ASSE. I’d like to continue to recognize our members when good things happen, so please share your victories with me so the group can hear the good news as well!

Sheila Schmidt, CSP, ARM
2009-2010 ASSE St. Louis Chapter President

Iowa-Illinois Safety Council Combustible Dust Seminar

Wednesday, July 22, 2009 - 8:00am-5:00pm - Holiday Inn, Urbandale, IA

The Iowa-Illinois Safety Council is hosting an 8 Hour Combustible Dust Seminar!

Do you have questions about combustible dust hazards and how to control them? You may have combustible dust or particulates in your facility without even recognizing them. Dust defagration, other fre, and explosion hazards in industry are covered by several OSHA standards and the general duty clause. This 8-hour seminar will address the hazard assessment and mitigation of combustible dust, methods and procedures for dust inspection programs, and an in-depth discussion of NFPA 654, Standard for the Prevention of Fire and Dust Explosions from the Manufacturing, Processing, and Handling of Combustible Particulate Solids.

We are pleased to have Joe Howicz as our speaker for this informative seminar. Joe worked for OSHA for many years as a senior OSHA compliance offcer and for most of his career as an instructor at the OSHA National Training Institute. As Chairperson of OSHA’s PSM and Hazardous Materials courses, he primarily focused on process safety management of highly hazardous chemicals.

After joining Accident Prevention Corporation (APC) in 2006, he developed and presented OSHA’s Compliance Offcer training program relating to the Petroleum Refnery PSM National Emphasis Program, a comprehensive refnery inspection program. As APC’s Safety and Fire Protection Expert, Joe has worked with many employers regarding PSM, hazardous chemicals, fammable liquids and gases, combustible dusts and other occupational safety issues.

Please contact Margret Meade at 515.276.4724 (ext 221) or email margret@iisc.org if you have any questions.

Combustible Dust Seminar Registration Form (pdf)

2009-2010 Chapter Election Nominees

Candidate for President

Sheila Schmidt, CSP, ARM
Currently serving as Vice President.

Candidate for Vice President

Mark Logue, ASP
It has been a great experience to be an active member of the ASSE St. Louis chapter over the past year. Working with Tim Barth as co-chair of the programs committee has allowed me to witness all that is required to bring quality speakers and content to the ASSE members. In January of this year I organized and executed the tour of bioMérieux, Inc. I also worked with Tim to bring in some of the speakers we will be hearing from this year.

I have been in the HSE profession now for over 7 years having started in this line of work in the pharmaceutical industry without a background in safety. Since that time I have continued to pursue a career in HSE. I have obtained a Masters in Business Administration and booked BCSP credits to be able to sit for and pass the ASP exam. Shortly, I will be taking the CSP exam.

Presently, I am the HSE Coordinator for bioMerieux, Inc. a medical diagnostic manufacturer with HSE over site of over 700 employees in two states. Some duties that I perform for my employer such as budgeting, project management, and executive summaries would serve ASSE St. Louis well if I am elected as your chapter Vice President.

Candidate for Treasurer

Bill White, RBSM
Currently serving as Treasurer.

Candidates for Secretary

Erin Mutert, CSP
I am responsible for providing safety consulting services to help clients reduce risks associated with workers’ compensation, auto liability, general liability and property exposures.

In addition to coordinating training sessions for clients at JW Terrill, I also coordinate the loss control seminar series at our office. These tasks require me to do a lot of the same duties that the secretary for ASSE would be responsible for. I maintain a client and attendance list for each seminar, send invites, coordinate speakers, and compile handout materials and follow-up information.

I have the ability to communicate well with others and I am a very organized person.

In college I was the president of our ASSE student chapter at Central Missouri State. I worked closely with the other board members and understand the responsibilities of this position.

I feel my experiences at work and with the student section will allow me to best serve the St. Louis Chapter. I look forward to the opportunity and hope that you will elect me as your Secretary.

Dennis Dubitsky, CSP, CHMM
I am a twenty year veteran in the safety and health profession. For the past few years, I've been a local member and a Professional Member in ASSE. Over my career, I have been active in professional organizations, participating and contributing on the various boards. I have personally realized the benefits and advantages to membership in the ASSE and find participation on the board as a way to give back to the organization.

If chosen, I would look forward to the opportunity working on the board of STL Chapter, ASSE.

INDOX Services Presents a Special Offer for ASSE Members

Get a 4’x8’ Coreplast board printed on our NEW Arizona 250 GT Board printer for only $127! This is a 25% discount off our standard pricing just for being an ASSE Member.

Our amazing new board printer produces stunning high resolution full color output. It can print on almost any rigid material up to 1.75” thick. We can print to a variety of materials including plastic, foam core, aluminum, plywood, and acrylic. Have an application you would like to try? Ask us, we would love to help. Please contact Ken Joyce at 314.633.4826 or ken.joyce@indoxservices.com for more information and to get your special pricing today.