FLORIDA CHAPTER SYSTEM SAFETY SOCIETY
SUBJECT: Meeting Minutes for 12 February 1998.
The Florida Chapter of the System Safety Society held their spring meeting at the Cocoa Beach Pier at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, 12 February 1998. There were a total of 16 attendees at the meeting. Of these, there was a very good showing from the Cape (see attached attendee list).
Program: Cape Canaveral Air Station Launch Safety and CSP Examination Changes: The Present and Future was presented by Mr. Marv Becker, SRS Technologies / Las Vegas Safety Workshops.
Mike Willoughby, Florida Chapter president, opened the meeting by initiating introductions around the room. He then spoke of National System Safety Society news such as the International System Safety Conference, which is being planned for Seattle, WA, in September of this year.
Mike Kochmann, reported that newsletter circulation is around 120, which is about 3 times the number of members in the chapter. He announced that there were additions to the chapter web site and that it is a good source of current information for both the chapter and the society as a whole.
Fred Wachsman, chapter treasurer, reported that the chapter is solvent. He said we have a balance of $233. This includes the annual subsidy from the System Safety Society.
Next, a marvelous dinner was served while miscellaneous conversations continued around the room.
After dinner, Marv Becker grabbed our attention as he went into two very interesting topics. The first covered an overview of SRS Technologies. They are headquartered in Newport Beach, CA, but this company has safety engineering contracts all over the nation. Currently, there are nearly 450 employees, with sales of roughly $52 million annually. SRS has 39 safety engineers, 7 environmental engineers, in addition to some OSH staff on board. All totaled, this group of professionals has over 700 years of safety experience. Marv is the site manager here in Florida, overseeing support for the Cape Canaveral Air Station and 45th Space Wing. In Titusville, they support the Space Missile Systems Center (Titan), as well as other commercial efforts at the Cape, such as TRW, Lockheed Martin, Brown and Root, Kistler, and General Physics. This work is essentially all system safety, with the main efforts being program management (MIL-STD-882), hazard analysis, and compliance. Here are some of the projects they are involved in at the Cape:
More interesting launch information:
The second half of Mr. Becker's presentation encompassed the Las Vegas Safety Workshops. SRS purchased the LVSW from Jim Watts in 1996. Basically, they provide home study materials and conduct 3-5 day workshops preparing people to take exams for the following Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP) certifications:
They conduct approximately 40-50 workshops per year to companies and individuals. Also, they sell over 2000 workbooks per year. They recently have begun teaching overseas in Germany, Singapor, Trinidad, Indonesia, and other places.
Marv discussed some of the changes that have take place with the examinations. They are now computerized and are administered through Sylvan Learning Centers. The number of questions is now 200 (vs. 280) and the time allowed is 5 hours instead of the 7 that was allowed before. However, the 5 hours is without a break and any time off takes away from the time you can work on the test. Also, now there is a requirement (as of 1/98) to have a relevant college degree. The BCSP has not published data on how people have been scoring with the new format, appears that the passing rate is down considerably. Currently, to pass the exams, you need correctly answer 64% of the questions for the ASP and 65% for the CSP (note: the highest rate anyone has ever recorded is about 85%). This has driven a trend downward in the number of people registering for the exams. The BCSP has recognized some areas where they can improve scoring and has initiated some action. For example, they fixed some sequencing problems with the questions. Also, diagrams were made clearer.
Mr. Becker stated that people who take their workshop have about a 90% passing rate. He recommends people study before taking the workshop, then continue with about 100 hours after the workshop identifies areas needing focus. The long-term outlook of these certifications looks good. He thinks the number of OHST's will go up due to the fact that this certification does not require a college degree. In surveys done by BCSP, 50% of safety job advertisements require the CSP designation. As of last year, there were 9400 CSP's.
Marv concluded his presentation with an offer to put on a workshop for local chapters of the System Safety Society and American Society of Safety Engineers. He said that this could be done at substantial savings over the regular price of $700. He proposed to do it for the cost of the materials. This workshop would be completed over a series of consecutive Saturdays. This very generous offer was well received by the meeting attendees. Since Jim Guinn (the Cape Canaveral chapter of ASSE) was also at the meeting, it was agreed that the SSS and the ASSE would work together to make this workshop a reality.
CLOSING: The meeting was adjourned at approximately 9:00 PM.
Respectfully submitted, Mike C. Kochmann President-Elect FL Chapter, SSS
1. Steve Carey - SRS Technologies
2. Lew Engel - SRS Technologies
3. Greg Skupien - SRS Technologies
4. Tony Helbling - SRS Technologies
5. John Kinstle - 45th SW/SESL PAFB
6. John Macey - United Space Alliance
7. Jim Guinn - United Space Alliance
8. Connie Perry - STRICOM
9. Fernando Fuentes - STRICOM
10. Chuck Call - USBI
11. Gwen Call
12. Mike Kochmann - Nations, Inc.
13. Ferd Wachsman - ERIF Sales Co.
14. Ronnie Goodin - NASA
15. Mike Wiloughby - STRICOM
16. Marv Becker - SRS Technologies