How many times do you see it – your horse in front with 50 metres to run or your team ahead with 2 minutes to play only to be pipped at the post?  The temptation is to “go the early crow” but beware, you may end up with egg on your face.

Welcome to the first edition of “Simon Says” in this year of the Rooster, the Fire Rooster to be precise.  Unfortunately the Fire Rooster has struck early with one major fire loss already on the claims desk.

It’s been a busy start to 2017 with January and February taken up with planning and administrative tasks in preparation for the year ahead.  There are a few new checklists on the drawing board, the risk engineering program is up and running, the TCE program hasn’t cooled down and there have been a number of unique and interesting member enquires to attend to.  Never a dull moment.

So…… what’s on the cards for 2017?

Mini Seminars

Firstly, thank you to all those members who took time out of their busy schedules to support the mini seminar series last year.  We are in the process of organising this year’s seminar topics, one of which examines the practicalities of one of our newer protections – Cyber, and the other will explore an emerging risk or risk engineering topic.  At this stage we are looking at mid-May for our first seminar series and late November, early December for the second series.  Keep an eye on your inbox.

Got a suggestion for an emerging risk mini seminar topic? Let me know!

The AURIMS conference is on in Sydney from Wednesday 31 May to 2 June.  Both Christine and I will be in attendance – so make sure that you come and say hello.

Also don’t forget:  You can host a mini seminar on your campus “How to value your TCE contents and research samples”.  Even though the year is still relatively young, two members have already hosted a TCE mini seminar on their campus.

The 2017 Risk Engineering Program

Risk engineering program is in “full swing” with two of the 15 surveys scheduled for 2017 already completed.  Besides the normal fire protection, electrical and plant room inspections there will be a focus on chemical and laboratory management as well as managing storm water and preparedness for adverse weather.  This broadening of survey scope has arisen due to a number of large losses which have occurred since the beginning of the new protection period involving fire and rain – a syndrome more commonly known as JTS (James Taylor Syndrome).

ENGage

The Recommendation Tracker software is DEAD – Long Live ENGage.

A full scale sanitisation of the ENGage system was completed during February with member recommendations reviewed and updated and a number of system modification requests forwarded to the ENGage taskforce in the United States.  As a result, your institutions data is now up-to-date and the system useability should be greatly enhanced.

If you would like an ENGage login or more information about the system – send me an e-mail

Temperature Controlled Environments

The freezer project is “heating up” with a number of members signing up for the “Full Monty” (mini seminar, inventory preparation including values and a TCE report).  Building your TCE inventory and creating awareness amongst TCE owners is a good use of your time and has the potential to have a positive impact on your total cost of risk, mostly in the self-retained layer.  We are still seeing avoidable freezer losses, mostly from those members yet to participate in the program, complete their inventories or implement a freezer management action plan.