Harvest Newsletter
February 22, 2008 Vol 11, No 2
Can we talk?
It's the time of year in our office when panic sets in and we start thinking about scheduling appointments to visit you. We feel it is extremely important to spend quality time with you discussing your insurance program. So every year in the midst of all the angst, the debate is enjoined to determine the best way to accomplish that visit.
This year circumstances make it doubly important that we are efficient in our planning. Easter is so early that it forces us to begin our client visits a little later than usual. Additionally, our agent/company bi-annual meeting is scheduled for the first week of May, so the tail-end of our trip time is cut off. Then we threw in 5 safety schools and a cotton convention to make our schedule even tighter.
Therefore, we are begging for your help on two important matters:
First, if you are planning to attend safety school (dates and places are listed later in the newsletter), please call the office (800-537-2594) so that we will have enough supplies and food for everyone. Check out all the free stuff in the article about the schools.
Secondly, if on safety school day you want to meet with us before or after the safety school to review your insurance program and finalize the premium and financing options, please call the office and let us know. We need to be certain that we have ready all the material necessary to work on your insurance and prepare a quote for you, before we begin our trip. If you call us today (800-537-2594), you will make our planning easier and more accurate. We want to meet with everyone that wants to see us, so please help us put together a great trip by calling today.
Safety School
The theme of the 2008 Safety School program is "Training the Trainer." Using the resources of our insurance company, Meadowbrook Insurance Group, we have developed some tools that we believe can help you teach your safety message to your employees.
The center piece of our work is a CD that will have 8 - 12 training modules of 4 to 10 minutes in length. Each module is a stand-alone safety meeting guide. During our Safety School, we will show you the CD, give you an overview of the contents and demonstrate possible uses for the information in either one-on-one training sessions or group safety meetings.
Each person that attends the safety school will receive one free Safety Training CD. It will also be available on the internet, both on our website--www.charvest.com--and on the company website. The date for internet release is not yet available.
The second big deal of the Safety School will be the honoring of all those who have been claim-free again this year. Some of our clients have long, distinguished records of loss-free years--amounting in one case to over 20 consecutive years. Plaques or update year-plates will be presented during the school.
The third big deal is all the fun stuff. We have designed the coolest hats--if a 61-year-old guy can have any cool left in him. All attendees will receive a "cool hat." And Meadowbrook will also have a beautiful gift for everyone in attendance. Additionally 4 Grand Prizes will be awarded--two $50 fuel coupons, a complete safety/first aid kit, and an amazing travel portfolio that will so impress the DOT that you will never get another ticket! (well, that might be stretching it a little!)
The school will last slightly longer than 2 hours, if all speakers stay on schedule. Here are the topics:
How to Hold an Employee Safety Meeting
Labor Issues--recruiting, compliance, H2A, Immigration Laws
How to Use the Safety CD
2 Professional Custom Harvesters - "How I do safety with my crew"
Update on DOT regulations, UCR and other upcoming trouble
Overview of Safety CD
Synopsis of CHAMP report - "Pricing to make a Profit"
Safety Awards
Times and Places
As at least one bright person noted, our first announcement gave a date that did not match with the weekday. We will try to do better this time.
Saturday, April 5 – Lubbock, TX at 10:00 AM. Holiday Inn Park Plaza, 3201 S Loop 289 USCHI will have an additional session in the afternoon at the same location. Lunch provided
Tuesday, April 8 – Enid, OK at 2:00 PM. Location: St Gregory Roman Catholic Church, 1924 W. Willow.
Saturday, April 12 – Hutchinson, KS at 2:00 PM Location: CHI, Ltd auditorium, 114 W Sherman. Reception for Meadowbrook Company personnel after Safety School
Wednesday, April 16 – Marysville, KS at 1:00 PM Location: Wagon Wheel Restaurant, 703 Broadway
Thursday, April 24 – Wahpeton, ND at 10:00 AM Location: Tom Haugrud's Shop, 8205 182nd Ave SE. Heading down Main St to Smith Motor at Stop Light turn south onto Hwy 127, Go south to Mile Marker 20, then east 1 mile to dead end, turn south to reach the shop.
Tools and their Uses
DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, splattering it against that freshly-stained heirloom piece you were drying.
WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned guitar calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, "Yeouw s--t...."
ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age.
PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters. The tool most often used by all women.
HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.
VISE-GRIPS: Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.
WELDING GLOVES: Heavy duty leather gloves used to prolong the conduction of intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub you want the bearing race out of.
HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.
EIGHT-FOOT LONG YELLOW PINE 4X4: Used for levering an automobile upward off of a trapped hydraulic jack handle.
E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool ten times harder than any known drill bit that snaps neatly off in bolt holes thereby ending any possible future use.
TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST: A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.
CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 24-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A very large pry bar that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end opposite the handle.
TROUBLE LIGHT: The home mechanic's own tanning booth. Sometimes called a drop light, it is a good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin, "which is not otherwise found under cars at night. Health benefits aside, its main purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate that 105mm howitzer shells might be used during, say, the first few hours of the Battle of the Bulge. More often dark than light, its name is somewhat misleading. The accessory socket within the base has been permanently rendered useless, unless requiring a source of 117vac power to shock the mechanic senseless.
PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids, opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads. Women excel at using this tool.
AIR COMPRESSOR: A machine that takes energy produced in a coal-burning power plant 200 miles away and transforms it into compressed air that travels by hose to a Chicago Pneumatic impact wrench that grips rusty bolts which were last over tightened 30 years ago by someone at Ford, and instantly rounds off their heads. Also, used to quickly snap off lug nuts.
PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.
HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to make hoses too short.
HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent to the object we are trying to hit. Primarily used to make gaping holes in walls when hanging pictures.
MECHANIC'S KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use. It is also useful for removing large chunks of human flesh from the user's hands.
DAMMIT TOOL: Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling "DAMMIT" at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need.
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