I had a good chat today with Jamie Burrage, CEO of NSCA Foundation. Readers of this blog may have gathered that we aren’t big fans of very many Safety Organisations. However, I was impressed by the vision Jamie has for the NSCA Foundation and I encourage you to check out their website and learn a little bit more about what they are doing: https://www.nscafoundation.org.au/. Their SAFETYconnect Conference is happening in Melbourne at the end of August (more details below)
I wasn’t aware that The NSCA Foundation is independent of the NSCA National Safety Council of Australia whom most of our Australian readers would be familiar with. I was involved with their 5 Star Safety Program some 30 years ago. The two organisations do have a formal reciprocal reciprocal relationship to provide discounted training for members and subscription services.
The NSCA Foundation is Australia’s leading safety community; a member based, non-profit organisation focused on improving workplace health and safety throughout Australia. They are the national voice of safety guiding industry towards safer and healthier workplaces. Through their substantial membership their vision is that Australian Workplaces are the safest in the world and protect their most important asset – people. They achieve this vision by inspiring Australian workplaces to the continuous pursuit of best practice in safety and to provide relevant and topical safety education, training and development.
As of 2019, the NSCA Foundation offers a membership program unprecedented in its long history. This membership program includes exclusive member resources, interactive events, the latest industry news and updates, access to a helpdesk, discounts for training services, subscription to Australia’s leading National Safety magazine and more. In addition to the membership program the NSCA Foundation continues to convene the prestigious annual National Safety Awards of Excellence, honouring individuals and organisations who champion safety innovation and best practice.
The NSCA Foundation is a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission
NSCA Foundation Resource Pages:
SAFETYconnect Conference
Enhancing the future for health & safety professionals – August 28-29, 2019 at the Crown Conference Centre, Melbourne.
SAFETYconnect 2019 will feature a two day, dual stream conference run by the NSCA Foundation, and a premium exhibition featuring leading vendors. This targeted industry event will attract senior WHS and business professionals from a broad range of industry sectors, including transport, construction, education, infrastructure, manufacturing, mining, utilities, government and more.
The conference will feature new papers from local and international experts and the expo floor will feature the latest products, services and technology solutions in the ever-changing WHS sector.
More info: https://www.safety-connect.com.au
Don McCormack says
Dave, anything in particular jump out at you that was different from orthodox safety? I looked at the site a bit and did not read any language I have not seen in other safety organizations. I did subscribe to their newsletter so perhaps more will be revealed when I begin reading that. Maybe I am jaded by all the orthodox safety ignorance or maybe I am making too big a deal of it, but I really was not a fan of putting a Kuala bear in safety gear on the web page. Maybe Aussies think of this differently that I do here in Texas, but I am not sure how that promoted maturity in risk. I would love to hear a bit of what you discussed with the gentleman from NSCA that gave you some feelings of hope for this organization. Now if they would get Rob or any of the Mavens (Hayden, Gab, Rob Sams to name a few) on board and/or have them as a prominent voice in their campaign, that would get me excited.
Dave Collins says
Hi Don – My thoughts exactly! I do remember the games we played with the NSCA 5 star rating system and what a joke it was. I definitely brought up the semiotics of putting PPE on our Australian animals (Max Geyer wrote about this a little while ago https://safetyrisk.net/corks-on-the-quills-of-an-echidnasafe-seriously/ ) Jamie agreed, he is open minded and is very conscious of the old legacies and also of slowly moving away from the orthodox approach if they are going to maintain their relevance into the future. However, as we all know from the challenging journey we are on, and particularly when trying to attract membership, conference particpants, sponsorship and sell training programs, you just have to be a bit “bi-polar” to survive. Perhaps slowly change thinking a little bit by stealth or subversion?. Jamie told me that Rob Long had put him in touch with me and I definitely suggested that allowing those “mavens” to contribute is something they should consider. After speraking with Jamie I certainly have more confidence in the NCSA Foundation as an industry organisation than some others who claim to represent it……… Perhaps we can assist them to become a little bit more unorthodox?
Rob Long says
Jamie contacted me recently to chat about a podcast on zero so, happy to keep an open mind on their work. Just depends if they want to learn or just entertain. At least it seems they may want to chat without having to make me conform to their silly zero agenda and absurd engineering assumptions about human decision making.
So, lets see if they are interested in critical thinking and learning, time will tell.
bernardcorden says
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bernardcorden says
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Rob Long says
Jamie contacted me recently to chat about a podcast on zero so, happy to keep an open mind on their work. Just depends if they want to learn or just entertain. At least it seems they may want to chat without having to make me conform to their silly zero agenda and absurd engineering assumptions about human decision making.
So, lets see if they are interested in critical thinking and learning, time will tell.
Don McCormack says
Dave, anything in particular jump out at you that was different from orthodox safety? I looked at the site a bit and did not read any language I have not seen in other safety organizations. I did subscribe to their newsletter so perhaps more will be revealed when I begin reading that. Maybe I am jaded by all the orthodox safety ignorance or maybe I am making too big a deal of it, but I really was not a fan of putting a Kuala bear in safety gear on the web page. Maybe Aussies think of this differently that I do here in Texas, but I am not sure how that promoted maturity in risk. I would love to hear a bit of what you discussed with the gentleman from NSCA that gave you some feelings of hope for this organization. Now if they would get Rob or any of the Mavens (Hayden, Gab, Rob Sams to name a few) on board and/or have them as a prominent voice in their campaign, that would get me excited.
Dave Collins says
Hi Don – My thoughts exactly! I do remember the games we played with the NSCA 5 star rating system and what a joke it was. I definitely brought up the semiotics of putting PPE on our Australian animals (Max Geyer wrote about this a little while ago https://safetyrisk.net/corks-on-the-quills-of-an-echidnasafe-seriously/ ) Jamie agreed, he is open minded and is very conscious of the old legacies and also of slowly moving away from the orthodox approach if they are going to maintain their relevance into the future. However, as we all know from the challenging journey we are on, and particularly when trying to attract membership, conference particpants, sponsorship and sell training programs, you just have to be a bit “bi-polar” to survive. Perhaps slowly change thinking a little bit by stealth or subversion?. Jamie told me that Rob Long had put him in touch with me and I definitely suggested that allowing those “mavens” to contribute is something they should consider. After speraking with Jamie I certainly have more confidence in the NCSA Foundation as an industry organisation than some others who claim to represent it……… Perhaps we can assist them to become a little bit more unorthodox?