Photo By Vanessa Schell | Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow command and base safety office personnel attend...... read more read more
Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow personnel attended the 40th annual national convention for Voluntary Protection Program Participants’ Association, held in the Denver metropolitan area of Colorado for the first time in the history of VPPPA, August 25 - 28. The convention had over 2000 people in attendance from across the country, 171 of whom were local to Colorado.
During their time at the convention, held at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center in Aurora, Colorado, MCLB Barstow command and VPP subcommittee members attended daily workshops, including Department of Defense breakout sessions on each day. As most of MCLB Barstow learned during the 101 Days of Summer stand-up this past summer, avoidable incidents with traffic safety, particularly those due to fatalities or accidents on motorcycles, has become an epidemic on base. This sentiment was reiterated by DoD representatives, as an issue that is also widely affecting many military installations.
During one of the DoD breakouts, Brad Baptiste, Region VIII VPP director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for the Denver region (and one of the local Colorado attendees), focused his presentation on the significant ways VPP is crucial to organizations, how robust safety practices can guarantee employees are safe in the workplace and how predictable workdays lead to employees safely returning home. “My job is to help those of you in VPP that want to stay in and those of you who are not in, who don’t want to get in. The biggest benefit of VPP is that day after day after day is typically safe and injury free.”
Ahead of the conference, Zwieba Bunnell, safety specialist from MCLB Barstow, attended Special Government Employee training, which is typically two and a half days but was shortened to two while he and fellow trainees took a working lunch off-site to conduct a mock audit for a commercial site that, coincidentally, had previously been audited by Jacob Taney, an MCLB Barstow SGE, in 2022. The site ultimately decided to withdraw out of VPP and their upcoming audit is for their recertification.
OSHA’s newest element in VPP Star achievement is VPP Elite. Due to the base’s one-year conditional status in 2022, the process for eligibility has started over. VPP Steering Committee chair, Sara Montez-Diaz, welcomed the determent. “It really opened our eyes on how different inspectors have different interpretations during VPP audits,” said Montez-Diaz, who also serves as the lead safety and occupational health specialist in MCLB Barstow’s Base Safety Office. VPP members also learn the importance of utilizing resources. “I actually reached out to Mr. Baptiste a lot about our one-year conditional, even though he is not our region director, however we support his region a lot with our SGEs and I feel comfortable enough to call him and ask for advice. I welcomed the one-year conditional, it opened our eyes a lot, with Navy medicine especially, and it helped us get the support we needed and provide better services to our organization.”
MCLB Barstow first became a VPP star site in 2008 and since then, personnel have been regularly attending VPPPA conferences. The installation was also the first VPP site in the Marine Corps’ and had the first active duty Marine SGE. Ruby Adams, occupational health and health safety technician with MCLB Barstow's BSO, was one of the few who stood during the opening general session, for participation at more than 25 VPPPA conferences in the history of VPPPA.
“We’re not deliberately going out and trying to find something,” said Adams, of the safety personnel and VPP members during a recent subcommittee meeting. A primary goal of VPP is to send employees home safely. “If you see something, say something.”
Consider joining the VPP subcommittee, so you can be empowered to positively affect change within the safety culture of MCLB Barstow. The VPP subcommittee meets every second Tuesday of the month and any MCLB Barstow personnel is eligible to join with supervisor approval.
| Date Taken: | 09.13.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 09.19.2024 10:07 |
| Story ID: | 481265 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 25 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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