SMACNA-Western Washington held its Safety and Tech Summit at the end of the year, presented by the SMACNA-WW Risk Management and Safety Committee. Held virtually, the conference saw positive participation numbers and an engaged and eager audience focused on learning important strategies for developing safer workplaces and employee culture.
Kirk Baisch from UMC, Inc. presented on how to achieve a pride-based saafety culture. Baisch is the Safety Director and part of the Executive Leadership Team at UMC. During his 14-year tenure, he has been instrumental in shaping the firm’s safety culture and elevating its construction safety performance. Striving to empower, support, and motivate every employee to live UMC’s safety credo from the inside out, Kirk has led the nearly 500-person company to top best-in-class safety excellence.
His talk was followed by a panel of industry leaders who presented ways to minimize risk and maximize safety culture. The panel included Lee Pyform, MacDonald-Miller Facility Solutions, as facilitator; Pattie Reuter, Miller Sheetmetal Inc.; Kyle Foley of Holmberg Mechanical; Dean Grasser from MacDonal-Miller Facility Solutions; and Karen Forner, Employer Solutions Law.
Pyform has been Safety Director for MacDonald-Miller Facility Solutions, Inc. since 2013. Prior to that, he worked for the Washington State Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) for ten years as a compliance officer, safety consultant, safety compliance supervisor, and as the Region 3 Consultation Manager.
Pattie Reuter joined the team at Miller Sheetmetal in 2009. Working for a small company has required her to wear various hats over the years, while gaining valuable insight into all areas of the business. Reuter is currently responsible for all financial operations, including risk management, and she spoke on the panel about Returning to Work after COVID.
Kyle Foley is the Safety Director for Holmberg Mechancial. He has been in the safety industry for just over eight years since graduating from Central Washington University with a degree in safety and health management. His contribution was a presentation on Re-invigorating Safety Culture in the Workplace.
For more than 30 years, Dean Grasser has been enjoying the sheet metal trade. His experience includes field installations, starting as a apprentice and working up to superintendent, project management, and department manager in Seattle. His current responsibilities include operations manager for Seattle, Portland, and Inland NW, Risk Management and QA/QC. He spoke about Task Training.
And finally, Karen Forner, who presented on How the Best Safety Risk Management Tool is a Four Letter Word, has been working on labor and industries issues and employment law matters since 1993. Her early background includes working at the attorney general’s office in the labour industries division. After working as a senior attorney at a private law firm assisting employers with labor and industries cases, Forner founded K-Solutions Law—now Employer Solutions Law—in Bellevue Washington. Her practice has grown since 2009 into a firm comprised of ten employees aiding and advising employers statewide ion matters of workers’ compensation, workplace safety (WISHA/DOSH/OSHA), wage and hour, prevailing wage, and employment law solutions.
Learn more about the Safety and Tech Conference and watch for the 2022 event dates at smacnaww.org ■
