There have been a number of inquiries received about the ACRA-sponsored OSHA
training course to be held in Seattle in March. Some of the questions have
suggested that additional explanation may be in order. Following are the
most frequently asked questions about the course and responses to those
questions. Following the questions/answers is information about how to sign
up for the course.
Chuck Niquette
Worker Safety Committee Chair
American Cultural Resources Association
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QUESTION ONE: I saw the notice about the ACRA sponsored OSHA training
course. It doesn't look as if it will meet the 40-hour training requirement
needed for work on most hazardous sites.
RESPONSE: Please take another look at our announcement. We don't propose to
do HAZWOPER training. Instead, we are doing a fairly broad overview intended
to help small business owners understand what OSHA requires and to provide
them with generic written programs (required) that may be modified to meet a
business' needs or tailored to fit the requirements of a specific job.
QUESTION TWO: If an individual from Company X attended, it would most
likely be me. I know there would be transferrable knowledge to our firm
from the workshop but would there be any transferrable certification to the
firm?
RESPONSE: The best way to answer your question is to explain about OSHA
Standards and what is expected of you as a business. First and foremost, the
whole deal is about providing a safe and healthy work environment for your
employees, and to demonstrate that you have done so and continue to do so
when the OSHA Inspector shows up. To this latter end, OSHA demands that you
document everything you have done to promote a safe and healthy environment.
If it is not in writing, it doesn't exist. The certificate is an example of
the kind of documentation OSHA likes. It says, Employee No. 7, Safety
Coordinator for Company X, attended said workshop and sucessfully completed
the course. As a result of this continuing education effort, Company X is
demonstrating its good faith efforet to provide a safe working environment
for its employees.
QUESTION THREE: Could you please explain what are the "draft written
programs for use by firms sending attendees to the classes"?
RESPONSE: The written programs you will receive will be generic and will
need to be fleshed out to meet the specific needs of your business as a
company, and the kinds of work you do. You may also want to modify these
programs on a job to job basis since each job site offers new and unique
hazzards to your employees - as well as the same kinds of hazzards that occur
with regularity on a day-to-day basis. OSHA requires your company to have
such written programs as part of any routine OSHA Inspection. Again, it
meets the letter and spirit of regulatory requirements and further
demonstrates your firm's good faith effort to not only comply, but to
document the act of compliance. When your employees receive training on any
aspect of safety, you should document when, where, who attended, who taught
the training and an outline of what was covered. This paperwork should be
kept with your written programs to show an on-going effort to educate
employees and to document the steps taken to provide a safe and healthy
working environment.
QUESTION FOUR: The cost seems high given that full 40-hour courses are
available for not much more.
RESPONSE: I assume that the 40-hour training to which you refer is the
HAZWOPER training. This is not what we are proposing to do in this
particular training course. In fact, much of what we propose to teach in the
course is free from the Education and Training Branches of any particular
state OSHA agency. The problem is that the information we propose to provide
is distributed throughout a large number of free training courses that
require days and days, if not weeks of training. For example, one might sit
through several days of training concerning the construction standard to get
only a few hours of information that is pertinent to the CRM industry. Phil
Jones (Safety and Industrial Hygiene expert from Woodward-Clyde), the course
instructor, will focus on a variety of standards - or portions of these -
that are directly relevant to our industry. If you take into consideration
the fees charged by OSHA specialists with whom a given firm might contract to
do the same thing, on average probably about $10,000 or more, the ACRA
training fees are exceptionally modest. Similarly, if you consider the
employee costs by attempting to do the same thing by attending a number of
free state OSHA training sessions, we are also a very good deal.
QUESTION FIVE: Will this course ONLY be offered in Seattle? Are there other
sessions planned elsewhere in the country?
RESPONSE: This depends upon the response that we get for the Seattle course
offering. We have every intention of offering the course in other cities,
but need a good attendance at this session to indicate that there is a need
and desire, on the part of CRM professionals, for this type of information
and training.
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Again, here is the short version of information about the course:
WHEN: March 20-22, 1997.
WHERE: The Roosevelt Hotel -
1531 7th Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 621-1200
INSTRUCTOR: Phillip L. Jones, CIH
Vice-President
Safety and Industrial Hygiene Practice
Woodward-Clyde
COST: ACRA Members $500.00 per person
non-ACRA $600.00 per person
Those who wish to enroll for the course should contact Tom Wheaton and submit
their registration fees directly to him. Hotel arrangements should be made
by course attendees, but a block of rooms has been reserved. The $95/day rate
for rooms is a flat rate (single, double, triple).
Tom Wheaton
Executive Director, ACRA
o/c New South Associates
6150 East Ponce de Leon Ave.
Stone Mountain, GA 30083
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