Yippee Safety Stuff Subscriber,

. . . let's party again for a bit.

I'm here in beautiful Sun Valley, ID giving the keynote for the VPPPA Region 10 Convention. A brand new talk too. It's entitled "The Future of Safety." I'll also be debuting a new song--"Leave That Cell Phone Alone!"

Tomorrow I'm speaking at the Minnesota Safety Council's Spring Conference. I'll tell you more about that next week.

You did it Tim Cruz from the Kansas Department of Transportation--sent in this week's winning safety & health meeting/promotion idea!

Safety & health meeting/promotion idea winners get 25 Safety & Health Puzzles on CD which they can copy and give out to their employees. They also get a copy of Spice It Up! 52 Easy Ways to Turn Your Safety Meetings From Bland to Grand! If you'd like to purchase these helpful products just go to: www.makesafetyfun.com

If I publish your idea on how to use a prop to make a point, or some way to get your audience involved in a safety & health meeting, or an innovative way to promote safety & health on and off the job, you'll win the puzzles and booklet.

Send your ideas to me at richard@richardhawkinc.com or click on the link at the bottom of this message.

Now, for Tim's winning idea:

"DO YOU FEEL LUCKY?"

Hello Richard,

Here is a presentation that I started using with Supervisors. It can be used in many different ways.

I start the training session by showing the first part of the Clint Eastwood 1971 movie Dirty Harry. This is the scene where Clint Eastwood foils a bank robbery by firing his 44 Magnum; He chases the robber down and asks the bad guy, "Do you feel lucky"?

I then ask the Supervisors if their employees come to work each day feeling safe or lucky. I then start asking safety questions; Do they check their employee's hardhats, or do they just hope that luck is on the employee's side that day? Do they check safety glasses, or do they just hope that luck is on the employee's side that day? I continue asking different safety questions.

To get the Supervisors involved in the discussion I pass out $1.00 lottery tickets to the Supervisors who give me feedback. Once I start passing these lottery tickets out to the first few, I quickly start getting feedback from everyone.

At the end of the presentation I then show the first part of the Clint Eastwood 1983 movie Sudden Impact. This is the movie with the famous line, "Go ahead, and Make my day." I end with this saying, "Go ahead and make my day and your employee's day by working safely and asking safety questions of each and every employee."

TIDBITS

The likelihood that an active jogger will die jogging this year: 1 in 7,600.

Women who smoke are likely to have menopause 1-2 years earlier than those who don't smoke.

It's against the law in Jefferson City, Missouri, to tie a boat to the railroad tracks.

In March 2004, a 22-year-old woman ordered a salad at Red Robin Gourmet Burgers in Canton, Ohio. She had eaten most of it when she bit into what she thought was a piece of gristle--except it had part of a fingernail on it. The previous day an employee had severed his thumb-tip while cutting lettuce . . . and they had been unable to find it.

The lettuce was used in the salad the next day. The woman, who remained anonymous, was described by a Red Robin spokesperson as "pretty upset."

YOU LED THE WAY

Here's an excerpt from a letter I got last week that sure did make my day:

Dear Rich,

Well, today marks three weeks from the first day I had a most unique opportunity to meet you for the first time in Dubuque, Iowa.

As I had explained to you, your appearance at Iowa- Illinois Safety Council's 55th Annual Professional Development Conference was due to the request of Rex Butler, IISC's incoming president of the board and the PDC conference committee chair for 2008. Rex, had attended a previous "Richard Hawk presentation" and was very impressed. Thus, as the 2008 PDC committee chair, it was his decision to bring one of the BEST to our PDC meeting.

Richard, we could not have asked anyone to do a more perfect job to set the tone for the convention. You used your unique ability to integrate your entertainment and educational skills to provide an introduction for our theme of "Safety . . . Not Just For the Workplace, Anymore!," thus setting the tone. Every educational session that followed, just fell into place. We had a plan and you led the way! Your general session in the afternoon was icing on the cake.

I look forward to working with you again in the future and if there is anything Iowa-Illinois Safety Council can do for our NEW friend, Mr. Richard Hawk, please let me know!

Yours in Safety,

Iowa-Illinois Safety Council
Laura Johnson, CAE
Executive Director

If you'd like to get the same type of results at your next convention or employee day (or are looking for ways to improve your safety & health culture) contact Michele Lucia (972-899-3411 michele@richardhawkinc.com) or click on the link at the end of this email message.

If you'd like to see a video of yours truly go to my safety website www.makesafetyfun.com.

LOCKJAW
(the problem with rushing)

According to the National Safety Council, a safe speed for industrial vehicles is the rate of travel which will permit the truck to stop well within the clear distance ahead or make a turn without overturning. When you're in a hurry, the definition for how fast you can go becomes "how fast you can get away with."

Rushing breeds disaster- especially when you're moving a vehicle or load that's heavier than an Indian elephant. When people rush, here's what happens:

• wet or slippery floors are ignored
• vehicles are left unattended with the motor running
• the horn is used to "blast" through a crowd
• loads aren't checked for stability
• bridge plates aren't checked
• loads are jerked around from fast starts and stops
• daily inspections are overlooked