Describe your current role and your responsibilities.
I'm the western director, there are 15 co-ops that I take care. For example, today I'm doing a safety meeting for a coop. I am doing a hearing conservation, accident investigation, and stress management and a few other things. When I go out to these meetings, I would have ops meetings and I also do meetings for the linemen outside. We have our annual requirements; we did a pole top and bucket rescue and at certain places we test grounds. We have a full menu of trainings that we send out each year that the coops choose besides the annual items.
How has the program, the CLCP, how has it helped you grow or gain more skills or strengthen your skills?
I started this job in 2014 and it was mandatory that I did take this training. it was very, very helpful. I was a lineman at two Kansas coops for 25 years. It helped me because before it was my hooks and belts and bucket trips and now I deal with the computer a lot.
The CLCP was good is a four week session and I did two weeks a year. Two weeks in 2015 and two weeks in 2016. The training we did, had different speakers come in and talk to us all four times a the week at a time in Madison, Wisconsin. There were 25 and 30 of them average, different numbers each class. It was very good, very informative, helped me a lot as far as getting to know the actual details of putting on meetings and understanding the issues. I also had to do a 30-hour OSHA training which I did in Denver, Colorado. Situations like that were all new to me, as far safety I, I was safety director, the detailed was very helpful
In general, how has the CLCP helped you in your work and in your career?
Well a lot of it was getting to know the people at the CLCP, the different issues with each company, and what each person had to deal with at their co-ops or the statewide. There was just two of us there in my class that was state wide instructors, so we were dealing with different issues as far as not dealing with just one coop. I deal with 15. It helped me a lot as far as getting up in front of people and understanding what different co-ops mean each time I go there. Because each coop is different, we always say we are all one coop, but each coop is different. The detailed part was very helpful for me. At the end of it we did a project. Mine was on public safety. Kansas is an Agriculture state and farming is a big part of that. I've always dealt with the accidents, farm equipment, getting in the line and stuff like that. Trying to help people understand the dangers of electricity.
What’s one thing from CLCP that has made a difference for you?
The different speakers that helped me tie everything together was very helpful. It was very helpful. All the details, the communication part of it, the OSHA part of it, sitting down and talking to people individually. And also talking to a group too. It helped me understand, help me get through that part. Right.
What is something you’ve approached differently or had greater success with because of what you learned from CLCP?
I think sitting back and listening. I think the listening part was very important. Listening to people and the different issues they deal with. From the office personnel to the outside personnel.
What advice would you give someone who's considering CLCP?
I would suggest taking; it as a very good program. It sounds like a long time, four weeks but doing it two weeks a year, it helps a lot to understand the necessity and listening to other people at the CLCP program itself. I've dealt with people from Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Texas, you know, Oregon, everybody different as far as around the states and just listening to their issues that they have. And I still talk to a lot of them four years later, three years later. The networking part was valuable for me.
