Improved workplace safety means lower rates and happier customers for the state’s longest-running provider of workers’ compensation insurance.
The annual ag safety seminars put on by SAIF are continuing into 2021 with a new look but the same principles. Instead of in-person seminars at locations around the state, English and Spanish sessions are happening online in January and March. The programming addresses a wide variety of safety needs of agricultural operations in Oregon.
According to regular presenter and Aglink safety consultant Eric Lloyd, the seminar’s content gets decided in two ways. Some topics are “evergreen”– the seminars rotate through them every few years so that new attendees get the basic information and old-timers get the reminder that everyone sometimes needs. Other topics are based on recent regulation changes or requests from the comment cards that are reviewed carefully after every session. In other words, for every refresher course on chainsaw safety or preventing falls, there might be new material on Application Exclusion Zones and spray safety.
This year’s topics include navigating the selection of PPE for your farm, emergency first aid procedures, “ag hacks” that save time and resources in your daily work, and making the most of safety committee meetings.
Over the decades the seminars have been running, they have evolved into a lively interaction between the audience and the two speakers who alternate topics. Wes Koester has been Lloyd’s co-presenter this year for the English sessions, and the online format of the seminar means they can help each other sort through the questions and comments made by participants during each segment.
To register for either of the English sessions (January 19-20 from 3-5pm each day, or March 17-18 from 8:30-10:30am each day) or the Spanish session (February 9-10 from 8-10 am), visit https://www.saif.com/trainings/agricultural-seminars.html.