13 December 2012 Jim McDermott - Safety in the Oil Industry

Members were given a passionate talk at last week's meeting by Jim McDermott, an international presenter of leadership training for safety in the oil and gas industry, based in Ayrshire. Jim has travelled extensively in his career and has a background in manufacturing industry, including the manufacture of explosives. He started his own training company in 1980 and  works with many blue-chip companies across the and in . 

He showed the classic picture of the steel riggers with no safety equipment, reproduced above, having lunch on a suspended skyscraper girder before illustrating how far safety has developed by the introduction of proper safety procedures, training and changes in attitude. Using his extensive knowledge and experience, Jim took the meeting through a range of outcomes showing where systems and procedures were not enough to prevent major disasters; it needed full commitment by all staff.

Mary Fraser gave the club's vote of thanks for a most interesting and informative talk.