Greetings Esteemed Members & Friends of NJASSP!
As the 2019-2020 NJASSP Chapter Year draws to a close today, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for making this year so meaningful for me as a member, and officer. I started my affiliation with NJASSP in July of 2007 and was appointed Hispanic Outreach Chair in 2009 by Past President Frank Gesualdo. In 2015, I was elected Treasurer while simultaneously accepting a position at the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NIST in Gaithersburg, Maryland. I was determined to fulfill my duties as Treasurer despite my work location and made it my mission to be supportive of the officers and members of this chapter who entrusted me to provide servant leadership without fail. Tomorrow I will begin my term as Past President with my head held high and promise to bring the same resolve in fulfilling that post simply because you bring out the finest in all of us and as dues paying members, deserve our level best in providing you a meaningful networking and professional development experience.
The 2019-2020 Chapter year has certainly been a whirlwind of excitement, adventure and discovery! It has also tendered us immense setbacks and misfortune, but we forged ahead thanks to our combined resilience!
We kicked off the chapter year by peppering the New Jersey landscape with meetings at Picatinny Arsenal, L'Oreal, Middlesex Fire Academy, Maggiano's of Bridgewater, and the Rutgers University International Center for Public Health. Then our training in Continuity of Operations and Business Continuity Plans was challenged when we were visited upon by a global pandemic.
Here again we showed our pliability when confronted with the necessity to socially distance by capitalizing on our ability to network and learn through the medium of digital communications. Through networking, we were able to adapt and form an alliance with Wyatt Bradbury, President of the National Capital Chapter of ASSP along with the faculty of the University of Alabama at Birmingham to bring you the "Socially Distanced Webinar Series"! From the Socially Distanced Networking Power Hour, to Organizational Resilience During Times of Uncertainty, to Cultural Interventions and 2020 OSHA Update, just to name a few, we were able to provide you with the ability to stay engaged as members despite having your movements greatly restricted as a matter of life or death.
On a lighter side, but with the equal parts honesty and candor, this NJ ASSP 2019-2020 Presidential term has for me been a year-long master course in organizational dynamics, project management, event planning, and crisis leadership, with an elective in herding cats! More importantly, it has been a very rewarding experience since in the process, I was able to interact face-to-face with many of you this year!!
As we go forward in this new paradigm of existence, we want to assure you that the 2020-2021 administration will be there for you ensuring that you have the tools you need to stay on the cutting edge of your safety practitioner career.
Fraternally yours in Safety & Health
Robert "Pt Rob" Ortiz, CSP, OHST
President NJ ASSP 2019-2020