Gosh Conference 2025
The Governor’s Occupational Safety & Health (GOSH) Conference took place at the beginning of March at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. Three of our mills attended, Medford Plywood, Medford Particleboard and Grants Pass Plywood. This conference is one of the largest safety conferences in Oregon and takes place every two years. Over the 4 day event, there were workshops, speakers, booths that showed off the latest and greatest safety equipment, as well as a forklift skills challenge event.
Safety Manager for Medford Plywood, Jaime Ludwig said, “Every single conference brings home important insights from each group member who attended. For the GOSH conference, we took home one great quote on how the human brain works. Grey Matter is connected by White Matter to What Matters.” The idea of the quote is to understand that the human brain works differently for everyone, and people can’t change or make the choice to change until it matters to them to do so. This is especially important to think about when it comes to safety. At our mills we have adopted the saying, “Think Safe, Work Safe, Home Safe” which is a way we remind ourselves the steps to take to ensure we are creating a safe work environment beyond just following the rules. For some people, the safety slogan will connect with them, for others it will take a few times seeing it around the mill on big signs and on shirts to understand it. Jaime has taken the idea of “Grey Matter is connected by White Matter to What Matters” from the conference and is using it every day by finding new ways to engage employees and help connect our safety goals to What Matters to them.
In another section of the conference, Ryan Ruska, Quality Assurance Technician at Grants Pass, assisted in giving a class on forklift safety and OSHA guidelines, as well as the best practices on operating forklifts in a safe manner. He also had the opportunity to present on our annual TP Southern Oregon Forklift Skills Challenge, which brings together our Southern Oregon mills and takes place in the late summer. The Forklift Skills Challenge doubles as a forklift recertification event and has had a positive impact at our mills, while also being a fun event that employees and families can attend. As Ryan says, “It [Forklift Skills Challenge] has affected safety awareness with drivers in a positive light since everyone likes winning prizes!” The Forklift Skills Challenge is something that many people look forward to each year and has been a great event that we are excited to continue.
When asked about a key takeaway from the GOSH Conference, Ryan said, “The invitation that I received to assist in giving a forklift safety class and presentation tells me that our company and the people involved in our safety programs are being noticed by OSHA in great ways and are trusted to affect other industries that use forklifts in a positive way when it comes to safety.” Great job to Ryan and everyone else who is involved with the GOSH Conference, it takes everyone working together to ensure safety is a top priority at our mills. Our team is looking forward to attending this conference again in a few years and learning even more ways to prioritize safety!
