Safe Driving at IA Stage

As Hurricane Elsa was doing her thing off the east coast, we gathered, “for the first time in [what feels like] forever.” After over 15 months of meetings via video conferencing and wearing masks – for good reason, of course! – we had a companywide, in person safety meeting on Wednesday, July 7, at the Ritz Theater at the Wayne Densch Performing Arts Center to review safe driving policies for our fleet. Mark Black, president and founder of IA Stage, thought an outing away from the office would be a great way to wrap up National Safety Month (June) as we celebrate heading into the summer. He was right!

It was raining with a purpose when a group of us met at the theater to set up in the morning. By the time folks started rolling in at 7:30a, Elsa gave us a reprieve and had downgraded to a drizzle. Everyone was greeted at the door with a big spread of donuts along with a selection of unleaded, leaded, or rocket fuel strength coffee. Each employee also received a black, all cotton ball cap with the IA Stage logo and our company motto, “Safety Above All Else” embroidered on the front. What color, you ask? Safety yellow, of course!

The purpose of this event was to review the concept of safe driving so that everyone had the same understanding of what safe driving really means and how unsafe driving can affect a company and its employees financially. Guest speakers Randy Free and Mike St. Lawrence, discussed basic driving fundamentals for a construction company fleet and how high insurance rates can thwart company growth and development, respectively. Special shoutout to our friends over at Frontline Safety.

Afterwards, back at our own facility, Mark lit up the grill and treated us all to a glorious backyard BBQ style feast of sausages grilled with peppers, onions, and garlic and served with all the fixings. Omnomnomnomnom.

Finally, we all trooped out front for a group photo with the company fleet. Darius from marketing had to fight with Elsa a little bit to keep the drone up in the air for the group shot – no rain, but definitely wind at that point – but we think it came out great!