THE SAFETY MANUAL

Of all the things we definitely NEED here in the oil field, it's the safety manual. However, when you are working for a start up company - there may not be a manual readily available. There are plenty of companies out there who want to provide you with a full-on IS Networld sanctioned document for just $1700. Or there's the fly-by-night agencies that want you to pull together those topics needed for only $49.99 and they claim it's OSHA approved. This would have been all-good but that's not how we operate here at KOFS. So, we tracked down a couple of Safety Manuals and went to town. Cutting, pasting, chopping and adding and all the while comparing it with the IS Networld requirements.

I just finished putting this beast together. It took about 20 hours of research, 10-15 hours on ISN and 8 hours of typing my fingers off. It's not perfect yet - but I hope to have it as near to perfection as humanly possible when I get through with it. I think the reason it took me so long to get it done is because it was a monstrous undertaking that left me feeling a tad bit overwhelmed and possibly the fact that ISN has a deadline of June 22 for my "grade".

YES...I said grade! That's right - as an ISN member you get graded on your submissions. (Gives a whole new meaning to "Making the Grade.") Now - this grade can definitely shoot you out of the competitive waters if you are sitting where we currently sit. That's a BIG FAT "RED F" - not just an F - I have a RED F!! Deplorable! Haven't they ever heard about the self-esteem building responses?? Couldn't I just have a green C or something? But NO - every time I log in I cringe when I see that horrible RED F.

And so I continue to labor (seemingly in vain - but hopefully not) to see that RED F at least become a YELLOW D? Meaning - "You, random oil company, may proceed with caution and use this company until they can get all their mountains of paperwork in." Wonder what that A looks like? Hope I get to find out!!!

The Safety Manual is a bear of a project because it's taking the regs from federal, state, OSHA, oil and gas, county, reservation, and more and melding it into one cohesive, comprehensive package. I am a person of order and I want some semblance of order in my Safety Manual but here's where I struggle - because I think like a female office manager, not a male laborer. I am just not sure what order to put this puppy in so they can find what they're looking for. So the topic for the next YEAR at their daily safety meetings will be to read one page of that blasted document so they can figure out where everything is...maybe.

Anyway, I have them neatly melded, intricately interwoven and as concisely written as is possible for me - though I am a woman of few words *cough cough* I know they will find it the most compelling reading they've done in a great while. (Okay - now I'm choking!)

No more procrastinating - it's back to the book. I must conquer this once and for all! If you happen to be in the neighborhood on the reservation on the bakken - feel free to drop by with some Starbucks please!!!!