Building a Great Austin, Safely

Wow, It’s really been a great year. Coming onboard a year and half ago and getting to put my spin on the safety position here in the Austin Chapter has been quite an adventure. But I must admit, it was an easy thing to do with such great team members, not only in the staff we have, but the Safety Forum members. Taking lead from National AGC, we changed the name and approach from the Safety Committee to the Safety Forum. Where everyone is equal in ownership of the forum, and each voice is required. One Team, One Voice. We went forward with the format of Live and Online attendance of the meetings. This way those who couldn’t break away from the job sites or were out of town could still tune in and give their much-needed input on the topics. We did see a new Chairperson step in this year to help with the Safety Forum, which is a much-needed position. Having two chairpersons helps so much with the flow of the meetings and tracking of agenda items. Speaking of new positions, our local OSHA office saw a change in their office as well as they welcomed the new Austin Area Director of OSHA, Monica Camacho. I reached out to Monica immediately to welcome her to our meetings? and get involved locally with our members for things such as the Stand Downs, Area Updates, and training courses. Austin covers 36 counties (seen in blue on the image) and has some of the largest amounts of construction going on in Texas. So, they have been as busy as we have, to #BuildAGreatLife.

The Build A Great Life motto saw some great and fun use this year too. From the hash tag allowing members and trades to tag their favorite construction pic on the social media, ?to the coveted helmet stickers and T-Shirts…? When a site safety audit or visit showed great strides toward?safety and pride in craftmanship, these T-shirts and helmet stickers were given out to promote?????? ?those efforts. And everyone likes being rewarded for doing a good job.

Site safety audits, job walks, and training still make up a lot of the valuable calendar time we all allocate to safety. And I am proud to see our members dedicate the time and employees to making sure the sites are compliant with the standards we need.

Specific items/topics that we have seen focus on this year have been, the Hard Hat to Safety Helmets transition, Mental Health in construction with a focus on suicide prevention, Type 2 fall protection for leading edge work,?and changes to the OSHA online reporting requirements for some trades.

I decided to volunteer and was accepted to the National AGC Task Force for Mental Health / Suicide Prevention in Construction. I am the Texas Ambassador for this program, and I am looking at the Military and Veteran standpoint for helping in these efforts. With that I am looking to start a program here called ?“Construction- Veterans- Reducing- Suicide” (CVRS=covers)????

In military combat, the concept of?cover?refers to anything which is capable of physically protecting an individual from enemy fire. This military term is also for aligning yourself in formation with the person in front of you, so that when viewed from the front of a formation?you all are covered and aligned correctly. In the vernacular, to cover down?means to have someone's back.?AGC Austin’s CVRS Program is geared towards those Veterans in Construction, having issues with mental health. Finding Mental Discovery, and rejoining a “Team” to combat the mission now at home on the civilian front… ?With joint efforts from programs already established by the VA, the Dept. of Defense, and numerous Veteran Outreach programs , along with other programs like “YouTurn Health”, and local mental health professionals that can establish a “QRF” (Quick Reactionary Force)? ???????????

Goal: To have employees trained on site in peer-to-peer guidance, with access knowledge to resources (sometime immediate if needed) to get help for those in need.? And in return build a team or peers in the construction industry.

So come join us in being a part of the Forum,

join us to Build A Great Life

and join us to Build A Great Austin, Safely.