SCCHPS Regional Meeting - April 29, 1999

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

The second regional SCCHPS meeting of the year will be held at 
the University of CA, Irvine, April 29, 1999.  Our featured speaker 
will be National President-Elect, Ray Johnson.  Ray is the 
President of Communication Sciences Institute, Inc. and the 
Director of CSI-Radiation Safety Training. Ray will present a 2-hour 
afternoon workshop on "Risk Communication - Part of a Radiation 
Safety Program".  For his after dinner speech, Ray will present his 
ideas for "Positioning the Society for Success in the 21st Century." 
We hope you'll plan on attending this interesting workshop and 
presentation to meet colleagues in the area, become an active 
participant, thereby facilitating a better understanding of the issues 
within our community.   

Schedule:  all the following events will be held at the University 
Club Library, UC Irvine: 	

*Afternoon workshop (3 - 5 pm)  "Risk Communication - Part of a 
Radiation Safety Program" 	

*5 pm - Dinner.  Menu selections are Prime Rib of Beef or Pasta 
Primavera 	

*Evening presentation (6 pm):  "Positioning the Society for the 21st 
Century

" The cost for the seminar, meeting, parking and dinner will be $35. 
Please RSVP your attendance and menu choice to Bill Nabor by 
April 22, 1999 via phone (714-824-5100) or email 
WGNABOR@UCI.EDU.  Be sure to bring a business card - we're 
raffling off two bottles of wine at the meeting!   

Workshop Synopsis: 

RISK COMMUNICATION - PART OF A RADIATION SAFETY 
PROGRAM 	Implementing an effective radiation safety program 
is a function of communications, beginning with the training of new 
workers.  Such training includes not only the requirements for 
radiation safety, but also deals with perceptions of radiation risks.  
New workers  bring with them perceptions or impressions of 
radiation risks before receiving training.  These impressions may be 
modified by the information and feelings about radiation risks 
conveyed by your training program. To help workers achieve a 
balanced risk perception, it is useful to lead them through a simple 
exercise to invite their reactions to an emergency response 
scenario.  Through this process, we can learn how to identify the 
fears and images that control radiation risk perceptions.  With 
these insights we can begin to deal with anger and resistance, and 
become effective radiation risk communicators.   Therefore, it is 
helpful to make training as much as possible a process of show-
and-tell.  Workers like this approach and gain new insights on 
radiation risks.  

Evening Presentation synopsis:

POSITIONING THE SOCIETY FOR SUCCESS IN THE 21st 
CENTURY 	For several years, the Presdients of the HPS have 
been introducing initiatives that will help place the Society in a 
good position for success in the 21st century.  Our success will 
depend on good preparation and putting our resources to work in 
the right place at the right time.  These initiatives include strategic 
planning, fiscal planning, public relations, government relations, 
reorganizing the Board of Directors, membership recruitment and 
many others. 	To assure that the Society will be in the most 
favorable position for success, I plan to continue these initiatives 
with special emphasis on (1) outreach to the 30,000 RSOs and 
their staffs in the U.S. that are implementing radiation safety 
programs and not represented by the HPS,  (2) increasing the role 
of the HPS in Congressional and agency affairs, (3) developing or 
revising position statements on food irradiation, the linear model, 
quantitative risk assessment, radon, regulatory burdens, and the 
benefits of radiation, and (4) assuring a strong financial future for 
the HPS through careful financial planning.  

Sandy Perle
President-Elect, SCCHPS
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