Safety meetings are an integral part of a good safety program. You need to have a time when you and your colleagues can get together and focus on safety issues. Meetings that come as a follow-up on a regular safety inspection provide a good basis for discussion of problems and needs.
All members of your staff can benefit from participating in these discussions. They become more familiar with safety problems. They see that management is concerned about these issues. They may even contribute some good ideas. Remember, no one’s been telling them for years that “it can’t be done, it’s never happened before, it won’t happen here, and it’s not in the budget.”
Is a whole meeting too much for you to manage? If so, consider having safety as a regular agenda item on your normal department meeting. Set aside 10 to 15 minutes for a safety topic. Ask a member of your staff to pick a safety topic related to his or her particular interests and present a five minute review for the benefit of the rest of the group.
Borrow one of the audio-visual programs from the Lab Safety Institute and show it as part of your meeting. Visit the LSI website to see the list of library audio-visual holdings.
Source: Kaufman, James A., Laboratory Safety Guidelines - Expanded Edition, The Laboratory Safety Institute, www.labsafetyinstitute.org
