2019-20 has seen a sufficient rise in members and in engagement of those same members through the Registered safety Supplier Scheme Audit, with which I have helped the fantastic work done by our RSSS Manager Roy Wilders to raise numbers on the required annual RSSS Audits and invigilating on the Safety Supply Accreditation final written test, often doing both audit and invigilation in one visit.
Currently YTD March 2020 we have a total of 309 BSIF members rising by 52 since March 2019. With 16 new members coming in so far in 2020.
Manufacturers continue to be the dominant force in memberships but Distributors are gaining ground weekly, the importers are recorded as the lowest, but in truth this kind of ready reckoning is not an exact science with many members providing all three duties under one roof. Service providers are still registering good membership numbers and expected to grow more now the Registered Safety Supply Scheme has extended its scope to include those companies that provide services around PPE and the wider remit of Safety Equipment.
Of our 309 total 248 are now RSSS. Extra engagement through RSSS Audits and invigilation’s of the Safety Supply Accreditation examinations have really pushed up valuable interaction. With some good Social Media that followed on from Audits to help that saturation online to great effect.
Some leavers were recorded in the early part of January, most of which were those members that did not engage with us in accordance with the new requirements of membership and as a consequence fell away.
Supporters of the Registered Safety Supply Scheme continues to grow steadily with a total
Now of 78 recorded and featured in our Supporters portal of the RSSS website.
The 1st April sees the start of engagement more fully with supporters. We are starting a major new awareness campaign with Local Authorities across the length and breadth of the UK. To this end we will shortly be working on a Procurement aid document for Local Authorities alongside ‘The Local Government Association’ and expect this fusion document will make landfall with LA procurement departments over the coming weeks.
Other Local Authorities already talking to us and supporting are Hackney, Doncaster and Dudley. Watch this space as more will be engaged with over the coming months/years.
If any members can facilitate a direct contact in to their Local Authority HSEQ and or Procurement department please contact our Membership Services Manager paul.manning@bsif.co.uk – Remember a conversation on the merits of BSIF and RSSS will be well met at these levels and will only help reinforce your relationship thereafter.
Covid 19 has seen interaction with other Trades Association more so as we seek to join hands for swifter conclusion to our current Pandemic.
Prospect member meetings (122 YTD) are continuing unabated via Webex, which has its challenges but allows some face to face interaction, invaluable when conducting member RSS Audits. Social Media has seen an upwards curve for my Linkedin personal engagement with currently 6210 PPE/Safety Connections on Linkedin and 232 Twitter followers. Which in turn has pushed a sizeable prospect listing of over 450 active contacts currently that could/should all join BSIF at some point, perhaps when they see the support that is now being ramped upward!
2019-20 saw us plough into no less than 9 Trade events to fly the BSIF flag to great effect. All gathered in new members and or supporters, plus gave us high value conversations with a multitude of end users of PPE and Safety Equipment to raise their awareness of all things PPE/Safety equipment related.
As the PPE Regulation ramifications continue to grow our membership and its support has widened its bandwidth. PPE Economic operations and areas new to us have beckoned as per the feature below:
Despite the COVID 19 this period for us is one of full steam engagement and consolidation of members and supporters.
Many thanks to all members for your ongoing support into 2020 and beyond.
Best Regards BSIF Membership Services Manager Paul Manning.