Utilizing the Program & Leveraging its Resources
On Thursday, July 15, GAWDA and the CGA hosted a live webinar entitled “The GAWDA/CGA Safety & Training Playbook.” The webinar discussed how GAWDA members can participate in the CGA subscription program and get the highest safety return on investment from their GAWDA membership. GAWDA members have free access to the full CGA library of technical publications and the online training modules, just by virtue of participating in the CGA Subscription Program.
“We realized at the Spring Management Conference that we have huge untapped potential in rolling out the CGA/GAWDA alliance program throughout our membership,” said GAWDA President Abydee Butler Moore at the start of the presentation. “Currently only 90 distributor companies take advantage of this resource. One of our objectives for this year is to increase participation and to increase understanding of all the phenomenal resources that are available through this GAWDA/CGA subscription program.”
The webinar, which can be found on GAWDA’s Members-Only page, was open to existing subscription members as well as members who are not yet participants. It covered a wide range of topics, including:
An overview of the GAWDA CGA subscription program
- Who is eligible to participate
- How GAWDA members can participate
- Accessing the resources
The webinar also included a member panel, where GAWDA members: Mike Bourgeois, Operations Manager at Coastal Welding Supply, Inc., and Lonnie Nash, Compliance Manager at Haun Welding, discussed how they utilize the subscription program within their own company.
It concludes with an audience Q&A session. The full one-hour webinar is accessible through the Members-Only site. The following is a brief summary.
Program Overview
The GAWDA/CGA Subscription Program is open to any GAWDA Distributor Member in good standing who submit required subscription and safety data forms. Participants must not be a former member of CGA with a termination date later than October 10, 2011. Benefits of the program include free access to CGA’s library of safety publications and eLearning modules, invitations to industry seminars and webinars, and discounted pricing on hardcopy publications and the CGA Handbook of Compressed Gases.
“There are two types of membership sizes that can sign up two different ways,” says GAWDA Executive Director John Ospina. “If you have less than ten employees, all you really need to do is submit your application form and you’re good to go. If you have 11 or more employees, you need to submit your application form and your OSHA 300 form.”
Members who submit one year of their OSHA 300A forms they are eligible for the subscription program, but not to participate in the CGA Safety Award Programs. To participate in the Safety Award Program, members must submit five years of OSHA 300A information.
Participating members get access for one employee per company location to receive CGA publications and 15 employees per company location to receive the CGA e-learning modules.
The safety dada submissions are processed by CGA staff and aggregated to track industry safety trends. Data reported from the program is shown in aggregate format and never identifies specific companies. CGA will never share safety data identifying individual companies without express permission.
What Do You Receive?
Once approved, GAWDA members have access to leading safety standards. CGA’s library has more than 360 industry safety standards, a value of $3,900 per user.
Participants also get access to training end education programs, which can be easily incorporated into safety training for employees, with access to eLearning, videos, and live seminar/webinar content. You are also eligible to attend live events that offer take-home value for personnel at every level of operations.
To learn more about how to access each of these participant benefits, watch the GAWDA/CGA Safety & Training Playbook webinar on the GAWDA Members Only Page Today.
What Participants Say
In the Third Quarter 2021 Issue of Welding & Gases Today, CGA ran an article entitled “GAWDA Members Share Why They Participate in the CGA Subscription Program.”
“I’m on the CGA website just about every week,” says Ben Polavin, Safety and Compliance Officer for Purity Cylinder Gases. “Without their publications library, it would be difficult to access that kind of knowledge base, from such a trusted source of safety information for our industry.”
He continues, “For us, it’s absolutely worth the effort to participate in this program and report the required safety data. For one thing, more of our clients and prospects are asking for the same safety data, so it helps that we’re already collecting the information. And the most important part of Purity are our people. We want them to be safe. Participating in this program helps us to do that.”
During the webinar, Bourgeois and Nash echoed those sentiments.
“Haun Welding Supply has been utilizing the GAWDA/CGA subscription program for approximately 12 years,” says Lonnie Nash. “I first learned about this benefit by participating in a GAWDA Professional Compliance Seminar. Haun has a number of DOT registered high and low-pressure cylinder requalification facilities, which are required to have several CGA resources available that contain testing methods and inspection criteria. We use these resources and safety bulletins for both daily inspection references and for all of our in-process and function specific training.”
He continues, “Prior to realizing that access was a benefit of our membership in GAWDA, we were reluctant to add to our library of training resources unless it was necessary, as they were expensive. Now, we can quickly and easily download them whenever we or our customers need additional information on just about anything regarding the gas industry, without worrying about the cost.”
Adds Bourgeois, “At Coastal Welding Supply, we really strive to be an industry leader in both compliance and safety, not just for our employees but also for our customers. Utilizing the bulletins, the CGA pamphlets and safety topics really helps us achieve this goal.”
