I am a Life Member of an industrial safety group and have been for many years. Safety groups have existed in Victoria for over 40 years and provide practical and independent safety advice to local communities and businesses in their area.
There has rarely been any coordination between them because sometimes it is hard to accept offers of resources without relinquishing autonomy. Some groups have administrative support from organisations, others rely on OHS regulators for speakers, some are incorporated, some are trade-based, several are within capital cities but just as many fill information gaps in rural and regional areas.
The major advantage I see in safety groups is that there is no set agenda. By and large, these groups do not have grandiose ambitions but are content to achieve a functional and sustainable level of membership in order to support the aims of improving safety in their particular areas or industry sectors.
They all struggle with maintaining their effectiveness, promoting their existence and ensuring continuity.
There have been several vague approaches over the years to unify or provide more formal support to, what I see as, an essential mechanism for educating and informing the community and business without hype or political agendas.
It is with this sort of goodwill and effective groups that true altruistic support can provide great benefits. Sometimes to be more than what you should be generates strife, politics, baggage and interference that can distract an organisation from its valuable and simple aim of improving safety of the community.