Welcome from the chair
Welcome from the Executive Committee of the
Bristol and West branch.
Hello and welcome to the Bristol and West
Branch of IOSH. We are a friendly and very lively branch and
have another great programme of meetings for our members. We
also have a number of trained mentors to help members in the early
stages of their career in particular.
Please remember that the branch is there to
serve the needs of its members. We have had some feedback
from a recent IOSH survey that suggests some members would prefer
that we held meetings at different times and in different
locations. This has been tried previously but the results
have been disappointing.
In general our 08:00 start times with
breakfast seems to be quite popular and the BAWA club at Filton has
excellent facilities and is conveniently situated near the main
motorway interchange. However, I am very keen that we canvass
further views from our members and we will be working with the IOSH
central team on this over the coming months. In the meantime,
if you have any ideas or suggestions for the meeting programme,
whether it is the topics, timing or location of meetings, then
please do not hesitate to contact me or any member of the Executive
Committee.
In the coming year we plan to hold a joint
meeting with the South Wales Branch and another with the South West
Branch. We also intend to hold a one-day Branch Safety
Conference in November 2013.
I must stress the importance of safety
professionals making their voices heard and I would like to draw
your attention to the IOSH Code of Conduct, code point 7 in
particular:
“Members having good reason to believe
that their professional advice is not followed shall take
reasonable steps to ensure that persons overruling or neglecting
their advice are formally made aware of potential adverse
consequences which may result.”
It is an honour to serve as your Branch
Chairman and I look forward to meeting and hearing from as many
branch members as possible.
Steve Osborn CPhys, MInst P, CEng, CRadP,
CMIOSH
Bristol and West Branch Chairman