Director's Message: Strengthening Our Commitment to Safety

FrameSAFE Now Included in NFC Membership 

Safety has always been at the core of the National Framers Council’s (NFC) activities. I think back to one of the very first meetings coordinating what would eventually become the NFC. Safety was the unifying theme among the framers and component manufacturers who met as a group in Madison, WI, to specifically discuss forming a group focused specifically on framers’ needs. I mostly sat back and observed the interactions among the individuals who attended, including George Hull, Bo Powers, Don Groom, Jerry Vulgaris, Jason Blenker, Stan Soltis, and Structural Building Components Association (SBCA) staff. From those interactions, I learned a great deal about how the framing industry is organized, and how independent each framer is from others in their own markets and throughout the country. That group ultimately guided the creation of the NFC and established framer safety as an issue everyone in the framing industry could coalesce around.

FrameSAFE, if you’re unfamiliar with it, is a comprehensive safety manual and training program specifically developed for the wood framing industry. NFC, which operates under SBCA, created and manages FrameSAFE through its robust Safety Committee. This program is tailored for framers and addresses specific hazards and best practices unique to framing crews on residential and commercial jobsites. Beyond that, it is designed to align with OSHA regulations, making it a reliable resource for compliance and reducing liability. FrameSAFE’s modular format can be used for onboarding new hires, while providing ongoing training for existing employees. It is also customizable, so companies can brand and tailor the content to match their internal policies and specific jobsite conditions. Most importantly, FrameSAFE is bilingual, allowing for use among English and Spanish speaking individuals on jobsites throughout the country.

In an effort to drive additional value for NFC members, at the most recent budget discussions for NFC and SBCA, the group suggested that FrameSAFE be included as a beneift of being an NFC member. Previously, only membership in NFC allowed the member access to purchase FrameSAFE for an additional fee. While this approach is regularly used by many groups and associations to drive funding based on a consumptive basis, a safe and healthy workplace is a fundamental expectation for any employee on any worksite. As such, NFC wants to make FrameSAFE as easy as possible to possess and utilize among its membership. Including FrameSAFE as part of NFC membership will result in safer, healthier jobsites that allow framers to return home in the same condition as they arrived in at work.

NFC and its partner SBCA continue to invest in FrameSAFE. While NFC’s Safety Committee is always looking to update and introduce new modules to properly inform framing companies and their workers, a monetary investment is currently ongoing to modernize the technology platform on which FrameSAFE resides. Software is being written to give framing companies, and specifically those responsible for safety on jobsites, the ability to opt in to specific content while also customizing content based on their company’s needs and jobsite specific requirements. The new platform will give FrameSAFE users greater ability to create jobsite-specific safety information which will result in more relevant Toolbox Talks and understanding from those participating in the jobsite safety process.

About twelve years after that initial meeting in Madison, that ultimately created NFC, I like to think that the commitment to safety by those in attendance has been honored by NFC. FrameSAFE is the premier safety manual and training program for the framing trade, regardless of crew and company size or focus on residential or commercial projects. I encourage anyone connected to the framing trade, either as a framer, supplier, or consumer of framing services, to learn more about FrameSAFE and consider integrating it into their next project. After all, safety isn’t something those in the industry should compete on, but rather a best practice with such a high bar that it is considered a standard operating procedure for all who frame. 

Jess Lohse
Executive Director
National Framers Council
jlohse@sbcacomponents.com
(224) 236-3904 (desk/text)