by Dave Kaplan

The Legislative Session is over, we've hired a new Training Coordinator to succeed Herb Sherburne, and your Board is holding its Transition Meeting later this week.  This is just the tip of the iceberg on what is happening on your behalf at the Association.

Some 23 bills affecting workers' compensation and safety passed during the 2007 Legislative Session.  Now comes the tough part in seeing rules developed to implement most of those proposals.  Watch out for emails and phone calls from the Association asking for you to serve on a rule development committee.  We'll definitely need your help to ensure that the rules are workable and fair.

This will be particularly true regarding the Vocational Rehabilitation proposal that passed.  WSIA will set up a committee to help develop our feedback and suggestions to the Department in the crafting of the rules.  We should see some draft rule language some time in the next few months.

If you weren't able to attend the Annual Conference in May 2007, new Training Coordinator Mike Corso was introduced to the membership.  He's been getting his feet wet by cross training with Herb, attending the WWCP Claims Management classes in Renton, and by learning about workers' compensation issues and about our members.  Mike is an excellent addition to the Association, and his knowledge and experience will allow us to better provide our training programs in formats that are electronically based, thus allowing for more flexibility and increased access for your use.  Most of those changes will begin in the 2008-09 program year, but we will continue to offer our Time Loss and LEP webinars during the upcoming 2007-08 year.

The Board of Directors will welcome the new members of the Board, President-Elect Bill Johnson of Simpson Investment and Region 2 Director Hiller Payne of Community Transit, at the Transition Meeting in Chelan later this week.  After Thursday's regular Board meeting, President Therese Baxter will pass the gavel to in-coming President Sherri Phillips for Friday's discussion on future workers' compensation issues and future Association issues.  I'll report on the results of the meeting in my next posting.

There a lots of other things going on, but those listed above are by far the most significant to bring to your attention for now.

Please check back here once a month for updated thoughts and a rundown of what your Association is doing on behalf of your organization!

Posted 25 June 2007

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