FORTH and TAY DISTRICT
of
EDINBURGH BRANCH, IOSH
30th Meeting and AGM
P. Szawlowski D. Binnie S. Chisholm E. Stobbie
J. Martinez K. Paterson R. Greer R. Mann
N. Doherty S. Fowler T. Mellon B. Pill
R. Stainton J. Goddard H. McCrea A. Reid
K. McDonnell A. Thomson
J Reid K. Driscoll D. Murray D. Clark
J. Gorgon W. Reiche T. Sayer A. Reavie
A. Pill J Little M. Powell A. Izzard
R. Turner B. Davies B. McDonnell A. Milne
1. Chairperson Karen McDonnell
Karen opened the Meeting at 7.30 pm. thanking those who had come along to the Centre despite the uncertain weather conditions to be at the District’s 30th meeting and AGM. The Chair then outlined the administrative and emergency arrangements at the Centre before going on to explain the order of business for the night. The Meeting would go through business matters first – including the selection and approval of a new Committee – before moving on to the presentation by the Guest Speaker Kirsten Paterson.
Copies of the Minutes of the 2006 AGM (26th Meeting) had been distributed throughout the room for the benefit of members and guests. Copies had also been e-mailed last February to those on the list held by the Secretary. The Secretary asked if there any corrections or comments to be made regarding the 2006 AGM Minutes: none were forthcoming. It was proposed that those Minutes be accepted as a true and accurate record of the meeting.
Proposed: Sandy Chisholm Seconded: Joan Goddard
3 Chairperson’s Annual Report Karen McDonnell
Karen started her report by giving the average attendance at the previous year’s meetings; just over 25.
The Chairperson then gave a brief summary of the previous year’s guest speakers and the topics:
o IOSH in Scotland in 2006
o POOSH in Scotland
o The “Safe Start” Initiative week 23 – 27 October
o Wiseup2work.
● In November George Dickson from the Scottish Ambulance Service spoke on the topic of “Managing Health and Safety within the Scottish Ambulance Service”
The site visit to Binn Farm Total Waste Management, Glenfarg on the 1st June unfortunately had to be abandoned on the day of the visit itself because Inspectors from the HSE turned up unexpectedly and this was taking the full attention of the site management. (!). Subsequent to this, the Committee will consider Binn Farm as a possible venue for the 2007 visit.
Karen concluded her report to the Meeting by informing everyone that Andy Stark had had to resign his position as a Trustee to the Board of Management of IOSH: the main reason being the large amount of travel distance and time involved getting to meetings in middle England.
4. Secretary’s Report Dick Mann
The Secretary started his annual report by asking the Meeting to note that the Chairperson – Karen McDonnell – has been recognised for her outstanding dedication to the profession by being awarded Chartered Fellowship status within IOSH. The meeting applauded this statement.
In his role of Secretary, Dick had received from Eleanor Chapman (Branch Liaison Administrator at IOSH) a notice that:
The West of Scotland Branch has arranged a seminar for the 15th March (0930 – 1645) at Hampden Park on the topic “Corporate Culpable Homicide”
He stated that he had further details if anyone would like more information about this seminar.
The Secretary informed the meeting that recently had two more e-mails “bounced”; Paul Colquhoun and Bruce Spence. He requested that, if anybody was aware that colleagues were not receiving electronic correspondence, they let the Secretary know so that corrections could be made. (Secretary’s note: subsequent to the meeting Paul Colquhoun’s e-mail address has been updated.)
In regard to the programme until the next AGM in 2008, the Secretary told the meeting that the “old” Committee had agreed that it would be for the “new” Committee to decide as a matter of priority. It is intended to set up a Committee meeting soon after the AGM; and the programme will be announced at the April 2007 meeting. (Secretary’s note – the new Committee will meet on the 22nd February). As ever, the Committee would be happy to accept ideas from the floor on suitable topics for our speakers in future.
The Secretary apologised to the meeting on behalf of the Committee for the fact that District meetings had clashed with Branch meeting dates recently: hopefully this will not happen again in the 2007 -2008 session.
5. Treasurer’s Financial Report Sandy Chisholm
Copies of the 2006 / 2007 Financial Statement and Budget request for 2007 / 2008 were distributed and reviewed by the District Treasure – Sandy Chisholm. No questions or issues were raised and, so, the Statement will be forwarded to the Branch to be incorporated with the Branch accounts.
6. District Elections.
The following people have been properly nominated, seconded and subsequently elected to join the District Committee:
Paul Szawlowski
Allan Thomson
Tom Mellon
Sandy Fowler
The following people have stood down from the Committee:
Kirsten Paterson
Barry Davies
Joan Goddard
The following people will continue to serve on the Committee providing the Meeting agrees:
Karen McDonnell – serving as Chairperson
Sandy Chisholm - serving as Treasurer
Dick Mann - serving as Secretary
The Meeting fully endorsed this arrangement.
(Secretary’s note: subsequent to the meeting details of the newly appointed Committee members have been forwarded to the Branch.)
From the floor Hugh McCrea, who is also a member of the Scottish Chamber of Safety (SCOS), gave the meeting notice of the forthcoming SCOS Conference to be held at Dunblane Hydro on Wednesday 4th April. The main sessions for the conference will deal with the following topics:
The conference fee is £120. Bookings (or more details) can be made by contacting SCOTS Ltd., 52B High Street, Dunblane, Stirling, FK15 0AY. Tel 01786 820 000. or try the SCOS website www.scos.org.uk
8. Guest Speaker: Kirsten Paterson BA, MA, CMIOSH, MIEMA
Health and Safety Advisor, University of Dundee
Kirsten began by illustrating the large numbers of people and the range of abilities to be found employed or working in the higher education sector; with over 1.7 million students, 300,000 staff as well as contractors, members of the public using university facilities and even sites outside the UK. On site people included those who are highly qualified, academics, technical staff, administrators, trades-people, students (undergraduate, post-graduate and overseas) and “the public”. Kirsten tactfully pointed out that academic prowess did not necessarily correlate directly with health and safety common sense!
In dealing with the University of Dundee, Kirsten informed the meeting that perceptions of the likely health and safety issues include such things as radiation (including lasers), machinery and complex technical equipment, chemistry laboratories, bacteria and viruses, genetic modifications, fire and explosion risks and supervising various types of field trips. In fact the University’s major problem areas are similar to most other workplaces with the major problems being slips, trips and falls; manual handling injuries; display screen equipment aches and pains, cuts and stress. Occupational ill-health concerns were most commonly allergic reactions, musculo-skeletal problems and stress at work.
Kirsten explained how higher educational (HE) establishments are organised and governed, and outlined the wide areas of expertise that were needed to manage their health and safety. Research work – pushing the boundaries of knowledge forward - meant that technical knowledge was often not readily available and, in some cases there was not yet any clear guidance or legislation to follow. This leads to a dependence on proper risk assessment and developing best practice.
When it came to getting things done, Kirsten outlined some of the difficulties experienced. Money is always limited and there are competing claims for funds; there are disparate requirements from different employee groups; policy making is through a tiered committee structure which is time consuming; a lag time between investing in a project and the results showing.
Other challenges managing health and safety in the HE sector arise from the internal and external organisations that characterise a university: the need for multi-organisational co-operation, sub-contracting work, and spin-off companies (set up to capitalise on research findings). This can lead to difficulties in establishing clear liabilities and responsibilities. It also makes communication, implementation and safety monitoring more difficult.
Kirsten then proceeded to show a number of photographs illustrating what her work had brought her. Some of the images showed fairly obvious health and safety hazards or evidence of poor practice; some were rather more esoteric and required a tutored pair of eyes to be recognised for the health and safety problems they posed. But, not unusually, many of the images were typical of any workplace and not unique to the university environment.
At the end of her presentation Kirsten invited questions and dealt with a number from the floor. One of the questioners asked about the size of the health and safety “team” at the University; Kirsten gave details.
9. Vote of Thanks Robin Greer.
At the end of the guest speaker’s presentation, Robin Greer stood to propose the Vote of Thanks. . He said that it was fascinating to learn the scale and size of the problems encountered at the University. He congratulated Kirsten on a very interesting, good humoured and informative talk. He then asked the audience to show their appreciation to the speaker; applause duly followed. The Chairperson then went on to present Kirsten with a gift from the District to more applause.
10. Next Meeting
The next meeting of the IOSH Forth and Tay District will be held at the Dewar Centre commencing at 7.30 pm. on Thursday the 12th of April. The guest speaker for the evening will be Jim Wallace from Diageo who will give a talk on the topic of “Global Risk Management”.