The Safety Committee
by Kirk Lloyd, Safety Committee Chair

Many of the members of the Agri-Business Council of Oregon benefit from savings on group programs for Workers Compensation and Health insurance, but like most things in life, there is no “free lunch” to be had here. Our ability to reduce costs for our members is driven by the ability of our members to out-perform the statistical expectations of the insurance industry. To help our members, we are working to build a strong new Safety and Loss Prevention program. The goals of this program include careful analysis of data available from our business partners, obtaining practical new tools and resources for our members to use, and ultimately to make a big reduction in the human and financial costs that must be paid.

One of our first steps will be to establish a Safety Committee within the Agri-Business Council of Oregon. We are actively looking for additional members for our committee. This is a great opportunity to both serve the Agri-Business community in Oregon and to learn new skills that can be applied within your own operation. Members of the Safety Committee will need to attend just one short meeting per month. Meetings will be organized and to-the-point. Training will be available for committee members who are interested. Please contact the ABC office if you are willing to be a part of this important project!

Whether or not you are able to serve on the Safety Committee, please give some thought to how you can further reduce the risk of injury in your daily activities. Remember that a majority of “accidents” are not accidents at all but rather are the predictable outcome of some sort of risk-taking behavior. Most of us in agri-business can find ways to reduce the chance of a bad outcome by making very modest changes in the way we do our work. That may involve fixing a dangerous machine, or providing some education to family members and co-workers, or just re-thinking the procedures used for certain tasks.

Everyone has heard the old saying that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. As we begin this journey toward better safety results, we ask each member to take a step by reducing one manageable risk today. Our individual steps will bring us all closer to the goal we seek to reach together!

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