President’s Message 

Well, the New Year is upon us with all that it brings.  My last letter talked about change, and I’m sure there will be many changes throughout 2011. With changes in Congress and in state offices it will be interesting to see what regulations will be added or changed that will directly affect EHS auditing.

One thing that will not change is that a mainstay of the Auditing Roundtable is our networking and exchanging information and ideas. Auditors, it seems, are by nature very interested to learn and gain experience and also aren’t afraid to ask questions. A great combination to have when our profession requires us to be experts in everything EHS, which also seems to mean we must know how all the parts and processes of our companies work (no small task).

As mentioned, exchanging information amongst ourselves is one way to quickly gain “experience”. Thus it is important we continue to foster discussions amongst the membership.

An area I know I would like to hear and learn more about is a question I have been asked several times by auditors working on my company’s audit teams. The question they have posed is “How do you want us to audit regulations that we know are changing?” Two examples that help clarify the question are SPCC and crane regulations. The SPCC regulations have gone through numerous effective dates and subsequent postponements. OSHA’s revised crane regulations recently went into effect (the question was asked a few months before the regulation’s effective date).

The auditors were looking for guidance on whether to audit against the old regulations, though technically in effect are – well – the old regulations; or do we “do the facility a favor” (okay, so not sure if facilities view auditors as doing favors) and provide them with insight as to how they match up against the new regulations.

The ideal answer is for the auditors to do both, but though ideal that doesn’t necessarily make sense as it may not be the best use of the auditor’s time. So, then do we audit against the new, but what if it turns into the SPCC situation where the new will soon be in effect – but wait it's going to be a while before its actually in effect.

I would love to hear others input/ideas on this. As mentioned networking and exchanging ideas is a mainstay of the organization. In this age of web discussions, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. one area that I feel the organization could do more of is exchanging thoughts and ideas through online discussions.

I’d be interested in your thoughts, both on the question above and the use of the online discussions. Feel free to comment back to me, to any board member, or to Kathy.

Thanks for your time and despite what many are thinking – Spring is coming. 

Andrew

apbroadbent@sunocoinc.com


Andrew P. Broadbent, CPEA, CSP
President
The Auditing Roundtable, Inc.