Chairman's Page
 | A Message From Tom Watson Temple-Inland Inc. 2008 Acting General Chair of the Pulp and Paper Safety Association |
Status Report for the Association
March 31, 2008
Some of you may have noticed that the PPSA is experiencing difficulty, e.g. lack of timely 2007 Quarterly Reports, lack of notice of the 2008 Annual Safety Conference, lack of 2008 Member Dues notification, and lack of Educational Seminars. Some of you may have even noticed that, at last check, I had retired as General Chair after serving terms in both 2006 and 2007.
Four weeks ago we had a confluence of adverse factors affecting the PPSA organization. I can only succinctly sum up our adversity as being brought on by increased employer work demands, industry acquisitions and subsequent downsizing and significant personal family illness which affected key personnel in the Association. The end result was that we have lost, by resignation, our Executive Director, Board Secretary, General Chair and the 1st Vice Chair. All of these resignations came within days of the February board meeting which is usually devoted to the final planning stages of the annual Safety Conference.
For a short period of time, it was questionable if PPSA would survive its 65th year of existence let alone whether we could finalize plans for the June safety conference.
I am happy to report the remaining board members have rallied and developed a plan to assure the June 8-11th Annual Safety Conference in Philadelphia will take place and the Association is on track for recovery. Thanks to a program plan already put in place by Dennis Taylor of Boise, Inc., and extraordinary efforts of the remaining board members, we will be offering another outstanding conference this year in Philadelphia.
We are, in the interim, operating without an Executive Director. We will continue the search for a new Executive Director once the June Safety Conference is behind us.
Because we have not had access to the PPSA member files, you may not have received your solicitation for 2008 member dues nor notice of the 2008 Safety Conference. In fact, we are in the final stage this week (March 31st) of reworking the Association web site to update it with current information and make it ready to receive membership and conference registrations. Although we have some monetary reserves, we are in need of membership renewals and conference registrations to assure the long term survival of the Association.
We are in the process of finalizing the 2008 Safety Conference Program and will begin emailing industry contacts with a link to the web page for registration shortly.
The current business of the organization is being carried out by the generous contribution of time and effort of the following: Tom Watson, Temple-Inland – Acting General Chair; Ed Corlew, Mohawk Fine Papers – 1st Vice Chair; John Sunderland, Buckeye Paper – Secretary/Treasurer; Dennis Taylor – Boise, Inc. – Program; ChairMonty Batchelor, Domtar – Vendor Chair; Pete Masias, Green Bay Packaging – Vendor Co-Chair; Stephane Blanchette – Domtar; Bruce Allred, Smurfit-Stone; Steve Irons – Georgia Pacific, LLC. – Vendor Co-Chair; Chris Redfearn – Weyerhaeuser; Will Morgan – International Paper.
In addition to active board members, others have pitched in and helped out with the survival plan. They are: Kent Harrison, Weyerhaeuser; Everett Knutson, Temple-Inland; Chris Weber, Temple-Inland; Sue Cooper, Weyerhaeuser; Neal Leonhard, Mead-Westvaco; Jim Mercurio, Georgia Pacific; Dave O’Donnell, Caraustar; Eric Hobbs, Esq. – Michael Best, LLC; Don Olsen, Weyerhaeuser (retired).
I also want to recognize the extraordinary contribution John Sunderland has put forth for the Association. If not for John, we would have surely had to dissolve the organization.
The Plan for the Future:
After we have a successful 2008 Safety Conference behind us, the board will begin a search for a replacement of the Executive Director position. It is important that the Association survive as it is the only non-profit organization in the industry devoted solely to Safety. As I review our performance over the past several years, I find much to be improved. Frankly, we (the PPSA) have failed to consistently deliver on the three key areas I view as our role in the industry:
Three core services that PPSA is uniquely positioned to offer are:
1.) Continue to produce the best industry-focused, low cost, annual safety & health conference for the pulp, paper, converting, and forest products and recycle industry.
2.) Provide to members a timely and accurate Quarterly Review with industry-specific content unavailable from any other source.
3.) Provide educational seminars (both standard and virtual) to industry that are topical, needed and specific to our industry.
After we turn our attention from focus on the Annual Safety Conference we will place the full support of the board toward developing these three core services. We hope to offer both traditional and virtual seminars on a variety of topics and to share educational resources with the American Forest & Paper Association, Fiber Box Association and Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industries and to make certain that our seminars are widely available and affordable to our members.
Thank you for your continued support and please register for the annual conference and renew your 2008 membership at the Pulp and Paper Safety Association Web Page: http://ppsa.org/ or fax to 850-850-1220.
Tom Watson
Acting General Chairman