The January Technical meeting was hosted by and held at the Master Builders’ Association in Pittsburgh PA. Mr. Bob McCall, Director of Safety, of the Master Builders’ Association of Western PA was the Speaker. The topic was “Yinz Good? Mental Health Resources for Construction Workers”. This program is a mental health initiative founded by the Constructors Association of Western PA (CAWP) and the Master Builders’ Association of Western PA (MBA). With the help of a few mental health and wellness experts and construction industry partners, Yinz Good? offers a digital library of free materials to assist in strengthening mental health and wellness our industry.

We had 10 people at the meeting.

Thank you to Bob McCall and the Master Builders’ Association for hosting the meeting and for speaking!

Jason Malatak, CSP, MBA, Director of Risk Management, Mosites Construction Company was recognized as the Master Builders’ Association (MBA) Safety Professional of the Year for 2023. He was also named the 2023 March of Dimes Frontline Worker of the Year for his efforts to raise mental health awareness in the construction industry. (From the 2023 Member Report from the MBA of Western PA, Jan 12, 2024)

The Western PA Chapter of ASSP offers a scholarship program for students who have shown a career interest in a safety or safety-related degree program. The Chapter also offers a grant program for members who are looking to pursue a professional certification (Examples: CSP, CIH, CHST, etc.) or who are seeking funding to attend a professional development event such as regional or national safety conference or continuing education. The application period is January 01 – March 01 each year with selection no later than April 01.

More information, the selection criteria, and applications are here.

The Chapter NEEDS new Officers and members of the Executive Committee!

The election of Chapter Officers will be in March of 2024 for the 2024-2026 Chapter years which begins July 1, 2024. All Chapter Officer positions will be for 2-year terms.

If you are interested in nominating yourself or someone else for an office, submit your name or their name and the position of interest to the Nominations and Elections Committee, see email address below.

All Officer and Advisory Board Member positions are open. The Officer positions are:

President

Vice President

Treasurer

Secretary

Advisory Board Members (multiple)

The description of duties for each position is in the By-laws on the ASSP WPA website under About, Chapter Documents, find “Chapter Bylaws” at this link: https://westernpa.assp.org/files/ .

If you are interested in nominating yourself or someone else for an office, submit your name or their name and the position of interest to Melissa Heike, Chair of Nominations and Elections Committee, at melissa @rjrsafety.com. The deadline for nominating yourself or someone else is February 02, 2024.

Thank you to the Nominations & Elections Committee!

The December Holiday Lunch and Networking event was held on Friday December 15, 2023, at Hofbrauhaus Pittsburgh hosted by the Chapter Executive Committee. We had a buffet lunch, an ASSP Update by Pam Walaski,  ASSP President-Elect and fellow Chapter Member, and time to talk with fellow Professionals and students. There was also a drawing for many door prizes provided by many of the Professionals and their employers.

We had a total of 51 people in attendance. We were happy to have the Safety Committee of the Constructors Association of Western PA (CAWP) join us for the event.

Thank you to those who participated and for to those that provided door prizes for our drawing!