Editor's Note: Never complacent

In this month’s Speaker Spotlight column, Jack Johnson of SafeStart discusses the dangers of complacency.

At the same time I was reading Jack’s column, Safety+Health Online Content Editor Amy Bellinger was keeping our team posted about a glitch she had spotted on the S+H website, and how she was working with the third-party vendor that helped design our site to diagnose the problem and find a fix.

Amy and I have been colleagues for a long time, and complacency is a word that can never be associated with her. She has been with the S+H team through the creation of every version of our website, talking with the developers in their own techie language while I could only sit in those meetings and count on her to explain it to me later. Her innate curiosity and enthusiasm are an inspiration – I’ve lost count of all the times she has taught herself a new skill so we could try something on the site.

On a more personal level, I’ve always respected and admired how much she cares about not just the product, but the people involved. She is unfailingly patient with those less tech-savvy than herself (me), and through her encouragement I couldn’t help but be pulled into the fascinating world of page views, new users and session duration.

It has been gratifying over the years to watch Amy’s efforts result in steadily increasing website traffic. Our analytics service is always active on one of the computers in my office, and I monitor it constantly. Amy teleworks from out of state now, and although I miss her presence in the office, I like knowing that she’s looking at the same data I am, and already thinking about what we can do to make the site user experience even better. Thanks for everything, Amy.

The opinions expressed in “Editor’s Note” do not necessarily reflect those of the National Safety Council or affiliated local Chapters.