SHERRILLtree and TreeStuff.com announce Fallen Families Fund

Alejandro Concolor said:
Nice. Are you currently out of commission?
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I've been back to work since May 2015. A week shy of a year. Since then its been pain management and working through the legal processes of WC. The US WC system is SNAFU, FUBAR and every other acronym one can come up with that describes organized and institutionalized stupidity.

Fallen Families would've been nice to have during that time since I lost about 60% of my income.
 
treehumper said:
I've been back to work since May 2015. A week shy of a year. Since then its been pain management and working through the legal processes of WC. The US WC system is SNAFU, FUBAR and every other acronym one can come up with that describes organized and institutionalized stupidity.

Fallen Families would've been nice to have during that time since I lost about 60% of my income.
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Dang. If you don’t mind me askin, what type of legal frustrations are occurring?
WC is frustrating at times for me too. I was home over a month before they figured out PT. Their transportation outsource was real shotty at first. Requests for tests or continuations on PT get lost in the mix of the 50 people that they go through.
It can be a pain.
But I am wondering what you are experiencing now that you are back to par.
 
Good Evening TreeBuzz-

It’s time to give everyone an update where we are with the Fallen Families Fund, and our progress since our kick off in November.

Why would we be the company to spearhead this effort? The simple answer is because we care. We are committed to the good that this fund will bring to families in our industry, and we believe this it's worth the effort.

The Fallen Families Fund is an initiative that started within the walls of our company, Sherrill, Inc. The fund is getting an initial funding/effort boost from our company and team, but the long-term vision is bigger than this. We’re going to help this organization grow to a point where it can walk on its own, at which time we hope to step back and let it run.

We launched officially at the Columbus TCI Show with great industry support. Thank you to everyone that donated, bought a raffle ticket or purchased a t-shirt! Through these efforts, we raised over $6,000 at the show, and 100% of the proceeds went directly to the Fallen Families Fund. To take us further, Tobe Sherrill made a $5,000 personal donation immediately following the show. Thank you, Tobe!

Here are a few other updates:
  • On January 1, Sherrill Inc. added a $25,000 cash donation which now puts the Fallen Families Fund at greater than $36,000.
  • The Fund has received a Federal Tax ID number, and we are now in the process of applying for nonprofit status.
  • We have established a partnership with two industry safety professionals that we’ll work with to evaluate grant applications. These pros will verify the facts of incidents and give us a professional view of each accident to determine appropriate next steps.
  • We issued our first financial grant in January 2018 to an arborist in Colorado who was seriously injured while on the job. A trained climber & arborist, this professional fell 35 feet and broke both heels.
  • The Fallen Families Fund website is still in progress and will be launching in the couple of weeks. It will feature grant application links, accident summaries, donation options, and updated information.
  • We’re continuing to develop additional opportunities to donate toward the endeavor: T-shirt sales, donations at industry events, etc.
That’s the update for now. We’ll let you know when the Fallen Families Fund website is up and running. In the meantime, if you or anyone you know need to apply for a grant, you can email FallenFamiliesFund@sherrillinc.com.

Thank you for your support,
Tripp Wyckoff
 
See my comments above. I do not appreciate the complete lack of response by anyone in any interested position after receiving my honest and thouroghly presented thoughts on this idea that was presented to a public forum.
I still see $36,000 being thrown away. That's a salary for one skilled worker to spend a couple of weeks at twenty different companies and make many workers safer rather than rewarding just a few who blundered.
 
We have established a partnership with two industry safety professionals that we’ll work with to evaluate grant applications. These pros will verify the facts of incidents and give us a professional view of each accident to determine appropriate next steps.

My I ask who those 2 professionals are?
 
SomethingWitty said:
See my comments above. I do not appreciate the complete lack of response by anyone in any interested position after receiving my honest and thouroghly presented thoughts on this idea that was presented to a public forum.
I still see $36,000 being thrown away. That's a salary for one skilled worker to spend a couple of weeks at twenty different companies and make many workers safer rather than rewarding just a few who blundered.
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We already invest separately in training and education. We have a full time employee that works with major accounts on training and safety, we produce training webinars and host training events, arborfests in 3 regional locations, we support and supply live training seminars through Vermeer and are partnered with NATS, the rent a trainer program, etc etc.

I find it difficult to disagree with the idea of helping people that are hit by tragedy.

Further, our plan is to use these events as teachable moments and to publish written reports detailing the event, what happened and how it could have been possibly prevented.

To me these are ALL good things and I am immensely proud to be a part of all of them.




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Maybe I am just naive, but I see this as something they have chosen to invest their time and money to get going and they feel strongly about. Anyone donating to it has the choice to support it or something else, so why are we so upset about this fund? And as Nick said they do support training and safety etc.

So is the thought that this sort of fund should not exist?

Yes in a perfect world nobody would get hurt, but...
 
Steve, fair question! The two volunteers we are working with have asked to remain anonymous at this time. We won't go into their reasons here. Neither have any professional association with Sherrill or Treestuff and are not our employees. Both have held or do hold safety focused positions at large reputable tree care companies. Both are people volunteering their time and expertise for nothing in exchange.


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Thanks for the response. Do they have the ability to deny a submission based on various factors and if so is there some criteria as to what benchmarks have to be met for awarding the fund money? For example, lack of PPE, using practices not widely accepted in the industry, failure to have an adequate plan or not choosing a suitable alternative when one was available? I guess what I'm getting at is.........Will the cowboy climber with no ppe and failure to follow the basic principals of safety be awarded a payout the same as a competent professional who has a legit unexpected mishap? I'm not trying to split hairs here, I'm genuinely interested. These types of funds usually have some specific criteria that have to be met before a cash award is paid out. Other nonprofits for example, burn survivors, wounded warrior, American red cross, food bank and on an on. They all have benchmarks for eligibility.
 
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There is gonna be adventageous people out there. People will scam disability, workers comp, even using their own children to get one up on the system. It happens every day, every where. But these certain systems, whether government agencies or private funds, were originated in hopes of helping those who need it. And that base intention should not be overlooked. I think the fallen families funds is commendable. Let them get the kinks out and I am sure that full disclosure won’t be a problem by the end of the year.
I wouldn’t have any idea on the vetting process debate. I understand that it’s almost difficult to want to see your donated money go to support the “cowboy climber” But part of me still sees it as an industry accident. And this is why there has been such a strong implementation of safety awareness and accessible knowledge and education being offered in various ways for free, In hopes of enlightening the unprotected.
But how many of us do side-jobs on a day off? A lot of accidents happen doing routine things. What if someone were hurt on a Saturday. You have your personal insurance to pay for medical and then no revenue coming in for the next few months of healing. That can be hard on the family, eh? But do we disregard the individual because he/she was working outside of there licensed company? :pirata:
I have been out of the field since Sep. ‘17 due to a fall. Thank God I was covered by workers-comp or else I would be screwed. But had I not been covered perhaps this fund could have helped with something. Or maybe not.​
 
Hang on

Time to reflect on the attainment of Perfection

One of Shigo's Tree Pithy Points is:

70%, plus or minus ten

When I read that the first time I kind of understood what he was saying. It was made clear later on during a session that I attended

This is what I found. If Perfection can be attained systems would function at 100% and we'd have perpetual motion...no friction. That isn't the reality of physics. There is always energy loss or friction in any system

In the case of trees, Shigo pointed out that they live at about 70% efficiency. That's like most systems. We accept the losses and work to get that next 10%

This project is commendable and worthwhile. Sure, plenty of growing pains and things to sort out

The question I ask myself is

Am I throwing sand in the transmission or putting my shoulder to pushing the system forward?
 
Tom Dunlap said:
Hang on

Time to reflect on the attainment of Perfection

One of Shigo's Tree Pithy Points is:

70%, plus or minus ten

When I read that the first time I kind of understood what he was saying. It was made clear later on during a session that I attended

This is what I found. If Perfection can be attained systems would function at 100% and we'd have perpetual motion...no friction. That isn't the reality of physics. There is always energy loss or friction in any system

In the case of trees, Shigo pointed out that they live at about 70% efficiency. That's like most systems. We accept the losses and work to get that next 10%

This project is commendable and worthwhile. Sure, plenty of growing pains and things to sort out

The question I ask myself is

Am I throwing sand in the transmission or putting my shoulder to pushing the system forward?
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very nice!
 
I think my questions are legit and not throwing sand in the gears. Honestly in my world side jobs don't really happen because of the very example above. If I was to do a side job I would do so knowing the risks involved. I'm just wondering how this is gonna work
 
Steve Connally said:
Thanks for the response. Do they have the ability to deny a submission based on various factors and if so is there some criteria as to what benchmarks have to be met for awarding the fund money? For example, lack of PPE, using practices not widely accepted in the industry, failure to have an adequate plan or not choosing a suitable alternative when one was available? I guess what I'm getting at is.........Will the cowboy climber with no ppe and failure to follow the basic principals of safety be awarded a payout the same as a competent professional who has a legit unexpected mishap? I'm not trying to split hairs here, I'm genuinely interested. These types of funds usually have some specific criteria that have to be met before a cash award is paid out. Other nonprofits for example, burn survivors, wounded warrior, American red cross, food bank and on an on. They all have benchmarks for eligibility.
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They don't decide, they report and there is a committee that decides. Check out the draft application and it might answer some of your questions.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfBiZF304-qRYMn3MaYEvtyKtmCHQVdrKNg1Ccjtl7TsJSlVg/viewform

Feel free to offer feedback. This is a work in progress.

Please don't submit spam applications, you can enter info and go through it but don't submit at the end.


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Seems pretty thorough although the HIPPA laws get very sketchy. Hopefully you looked into the release of medical records. I like the form although with a fatality it will be very difficult for the family to get a medical record for you. It just doesn't work that way. I had to call in a favor to get my wife's record. You may wanna revisit that detail.
 
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