Contributor: Chris Williams, Executive Director
Last month, VPPPA announced its inaugural SGE Summit to be held April 1-2 in Pasadena, TX outside of Houston (special thanks to our partners at the Health and Safety Council for graciously hosting this event). This 2-day event, the brainchild of VPPPA’s Special Government Employee Committee and staff, is designed specifically to help SGEs grow their body of technical knowledge and connect with fellow current and former SGEs to learn best practices that will help them in their duties on official OSHA activities.
To my knowledge, this is the first event of its kind created by SGEs, for SGEs. When you consider the vital role that these private-sector experts play in upholding the standards of OSHA’s VPP and the work that they perform to help grow participation, an event of this kind is long overdue.
The theme for VPPPA’s 2026 SGE Summit is “Community. Connection. Learning.” SGEs are part of an exclusive community of volunteers who give their time, experience and expertise to help workplaces across the country in their continuous improvement journey to protect every worker. Connecting with fellow members of this community is critical to the last part of this theme, “Learning”, because SGEs learn from each other’s shared experiences during VPP certification/recertification audits, application reviews and other qualifying activities.
Speaking of which…
OSHA has confirmed that VPPPA’s SGE Summit will count as a qualifying activity for SGEs to maintain their active status. That’s huge in that the Summit gives SGEs another opportunity to aid in maintaining their status beyond VPP audits.
The goal of VPPPA’s SGE Summit is to provide a venue through which SGEs can engage in continuous improvement, the foundation of VPP. Through interactive sessions, attendees will hone their eye for hazard identification, practice providing recommendations for improvement, and conduct mock interviews. It’s the chance to grow alongside other SGEs and to connect in pursuit of being the very best, not just as the faces of VPP, but in their “day jobs” on their own VPP sites. Learn more about VPPPA’s 2026 SGE Summit.