Housecleaning 2018
I may have discarded a truckload of such materials this time. But I'm saving some things, of course, reference materials I can't stand to lose and extra copies of our best past issues, in my estimation.
- By Jerry Laws
- Aug 01, 2018
Right now we're going through a remodeling project here in my Dallas office—or, I might write instead, we're enduring it, slogging through it, trying to survive it. The term "going through" just doesn't seem to do the process justice.
Our office and staff members have moved twice before during my tenure as editor, transitioning into smaller quarters each time. So I've had experience at paring down my stored copies of our magazine and many other magazines, competitors or not; my books; notes and materials from past issues; trade show programs; signs; business cards; and many files and records about newsletters, webinars, and industry events over the years.
I may have discarded a truckload of such materials this time. But I'm saving some things, of course, reference materials I can't stand to lose and extra copies of our best past issues, in my estimation. For instance, I have saved 25 copies of our 75th anniversary issue—January 2007—because it contains an excellent article about the history of this magazine, a timeline of key events in occupational safety and health, and very good articles on the evolution of PPE and the value of OSHA during its first 35 years of existence. (The issue's articles and the timeline are still available on our website: https://ohsonline.com/Issues/2007/01/January-2007.aspx.)
As the OH&S editor, I've overseen the editorial for more than 260 of this magazine's roughly 1,000 issues to date. Quite a few others stand out: issues with cover stories about the CPWR project that got some 7,000 construction workers back on the job at the Las Vegas Strip CityCenter and Cosmopolitan projects after a dozen workers had died on Strip construction projects within 18 months (June 2009) and the safety management program in place during construction of One World Trade Center in New York City (May 2012), as well as Ronnie Rittenberry's "Air Rescue in 2007" cover story (June 2007), the first time we'd looked into the air ambulance industry. More recently, our "I, COBOT" cover story (February 2018) and J.A. Rodriguez Jr.'s great cover article on helping "bulletproof" employees make the safety connection (June 2017) are keepers.
By the time you read these words, I hope and expect the dust will have settled and the remodeling will be done.
This article originally appeared in the August 2018 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.
About the Author
Jerry Laws is Editor of Occupational Health & Safety magazine, which is owned by 1105 Media Inc.