Mike Elliott was recognized as the 2021-22 Broken Top Peak Leadership award recipient. The award is given to a deserving leader that has been supportive of the safety profession and/or of the Broken Top Chapter. The award may be given to a chapter member or a non-member working or living in Central Oregon. Mike has been the Regional Operations Director for SAIF’s Eastern Region (out of the Bend, Oregon office) since 2014. Prior to a restructuring of reporting duties one of the group’s that was under Mike was the Eastern Region Safety and Health team with five regional safety consultants supporting businesses from in a large geographical area that stretches from the Central Oregon area north to Cascade Locks and all the way east to the Idaho border.
Mike has direct influence on safety for all SAIF Eastern Region policy holders that fall within those boundaries and have locations beyond. He has also given resources and helped coordinate staff for SAIF’s Agricultural Safety Seminars in the region. During the fall and winter months Mike himself helps set up, sign in, and break down at most of these events. It is rare that he misses one. These trainings touch hundreds of people in agriculture the region annually.
Mike has also coordinated in person trainings from SAIF on several safety topics throughout the region. These annual trainings prior to COVID were done by field staff in Bend, Redmond, Hood River, The Dalles, Hermiston, La Grande, and Ontario touching hundreds of additional people in a wide range of industries. Many times Mike would also help set up, introduce speakers, and break down at these events. He continues to do introductions for safety presentations for the region and did so as recently of fall of 2021 for a presentation from two of the region’s safety consultants.
He has been continually supportive of not just safety staff and their influence on policy holders in this vast region but also in voluntary efforts including ASSP. Mike supported staff through membership commitments and fees. He also has helped secure consistent sponsorship and exhibitor fees from SAIF for both the COSHA Fall Conference and Mid Construction Summit in Central Oregon as well as the Blue Mountain Safety Conference in Northeast Oregon. He has also worked with SAIF to donate pens and reusable bags for the Blue Mountain Conference as attendee gifts for several years. Those regional conferences are also easily the largest such conferences in those geographical areas helping spread influence on safety culture and policy.
Mike has given support to volunteers on those conference boards from his staff. He has helped organize, volunteer, and in some cases run the SAIF exhibitor’s booth by himself at all of these events. In addition to his work with local conferences since 2017 Mike has been appeared with regular radio safety message spots on KBND’s Experts on the 20’s here in Central Oregon.
When the Broken Top section was first forming in Central Oregon Mike’s willingness to let us use the SAIF conference room for membership meetings as a free area to meet was hugely impactful at a time when there was very little budget for venues. The chapter has been holding everything from our initial kick-off event, to quarterly membership meetings, to our PDCs prior to the pandemic impacting in person meetings at SAIF’s Bend office. That allowed the section to set a firm foundation in the area over the first several years of operation and grow into the successful chapter it is today.