ASSE Announces New Fire Protection Practice Specialty
The Fire Protection Practice Specialty was announced today by the American Society of Safety Engineers, culminating a long process of growth for this segment within ASSE. Previously, it was a branch of the ASSE Engineering Practice Specialty.
"It has been a long journey that could not have been possible without the assistance and support of many individuals who helped grow the Fire Protection group from its start as a branch in late 2003 to become ASSE's 14th practice specialty this summer," said Fire Protection PS Administrator Frank Baker, CSP, CFPS. "We are the first branch to become a practice specialty under the current ASSE Council on Practices and Standards guidelines established several years ago. We have assembled a fantastic group of volunteers on our advisory committee, representing a wide variety of expertise to lead our committees and continue to expand the organization to better serve our members and raise awareness of fire protection and prevention."
He said its initial goals are to continuously improve on the group's technical publication, "Fireline," which Fire Protection PS members receive; build Web page resources in conjunction with key issues identified by its members; and develop a resource network of technical experts who can participate on a listserv to help colleagues solve problems.
For a branch to be considered to become an ASSE practice specialty, it must have at least 500 members, have published three newsletters in a previous year, have a chair and vice chair, and have a strategic plan. Other ASSE practice specialties are academics, construction, engineering, environment, healthcare, industrial hygiene (with the ergonomics branch), international, management (with hospitality, human resources, and manufacturing branches), mining, public sector, risk management and insurance (with the training and communications branch), and transportation (with the oil and gas branch).
"Although our practice specialty name implies that we are strictly focused on fire protection, we are in fact a very diverse group," Baker said of the Fire Protection PS. "The membership is comprised of professionals from many backgrounds, including both pubic and private sectors, with full-time and part-time responsibilities for fire safety; professionals involved in prevention, suppression, or post-incident mitigation; as well as professionals in areas of life safety, disaster, and emergency management." For more information, visit www.asse.org.