Dr. Randall Davidson, Commissioner Emeritus of the Health & Safety Commission, was on hand in Louisville, Kentucky. He was honored as a USITT Member Author and signed books in addition to offering his expert opinions on a wide variety of topics.

Photo/R. Finkelstein

James Cooper
Outgoing Health & Safety Commissioner

Louisville was one of the best conferences in recent years. The facilities were new and generally well run (there were some HVAC issues), but Expo had many new items, the sessions proved to be interesting, with multiple highlights for all of the commissions, and everyone seemed to have a good time.

There were some changes made in the Health & Safety Commission. After five years, I stepped down as Commissioner and the position was taken over by Nate Otto. Mr Otto is the technical director at Vanderbilt University. You may have seen him at the Conference. He was everywhere. Besides taking over the Commission, he was also one of the regional planners, a troubleshooter, and a member of the Conference Committee. He is also a new daddy (you may have seen Caitlin, in her stroller, sporting a full conference badge even if she was not allowed into any sessions).

Mr. Otto has several ideas for changing the direction and scope of the Commission which I believe will make it more up-to-date and interesting to a wider group of conference attendees.

Also, at Louisville, Dave Glowacki of Hawkin School in Ohio stepped up as Vice-Commissioner for Programming, generally a thankless but probably the busiest position in any of the Commissions. He will be responsible for coordinating all of the Health & Safety sessions for Phoenix and, if we are lucky, several years into the future.

Mr. Otto and Mr. Glowacki, working with the Commission members and the Commissioners from the rest of the Institute, have come up with a great program for the conference in Phoenix and are already working on Houston and the 50-year spectacular in 2010.

Over the next few issues of Sightlines, I hope to recap the sessions from Louisville and introduce the sessions for next year. CPR training will be offered, and I recommend it to everyone attending.

One final note, it was a pleasure to see Dr. Randy Davidson (Dr. Doom) bedecked in purple, at his 43rd(?) conference. Few have done more for the health and safety in our industry than he has. He will be offering a session next year on waste management, another critical topic in our field.

It was wonderful to see many old friends at Louisville, and I look forward to making new friends in Phoenix.

Be Safe!

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