Mulch & Soil Council

Who Should Attend

• Every owner or plant manager of a mulch and/or soil production plant should attend this program.
• Company owners not familiar with Fire Best Management Practices and Effective equipment maintenance programs should attend.
• MSC members and non-members may participate.
• Everyone is welcomed to participate.

Course Objective

This course will instruct program participants on Best Management Practices (BMPs) for organic product inventory management and control for fire safety, prevention and response. Additionally, our course will focus on key techniques to establish a more profit sustaining "predict and prevent" system for equipment maintenace as an alternative to the highly unpredictible and costly "fail and fix" method.

Course Overview

Fire Safety Best Management Practices
Speaker: Don Dugger, The Scotts Company (retired)

From the moment you first build your inventory piles of mulch, compost or other organic materials, you can start the clock. You are now steadily moving toward a spontaneous combustion event! The speed at which you move is determined by numerous factors such as wood species, particle size, organic content, wind, temperature, moisture content and more. Whether you actually arrive at that moment of combustion is significantly controlled by how well you implement proper site and inventory management practices.

If you don't follow proper Fire BMPs or if you have an external ignition source, i.e., equipment fire or lightning strike, the difference between a minor fire event and a corporate catastrophe is in how quickly you react to establish command and control, deploy your fire-fighting strategy, select proper personnel and equipment and procedures to extingush the fire with minimum loss and MAXUMUM PERSONNEL SAFETY!

This unique training program will instruct participants on proper site and inventory management and procedures, personnel training, chain of command, equipment selection and deployment and fire-fighting techniques including reviews of actual events and what went right or wrong at each.

PLUS: 4 Key Equipment Maintenance Strategies to Sustain Lasting Improvements
Speaker: Ted Dirkx, Manager, Vermeer Recycling & Forestry Div.

The pandemic showed how costly equipment failures are when supply chain issues delay parts and repairs for weeks or even months. With a primary season compressed onto the months of March - June when 60% of industry products ship, you cannot afford to have trucks redlined on the fence, grinders idle or other essential equipment red-tagged due to maintenance failures. This course will look at 4 key maintenance strategies to use to prevent the traditionally unpredictable and highly risky "fail and fix" roll of the dice to create a profit sustaining "predict and prevent" environment for your plant maintenance program.

Full Meeting Registration

All advance registrations must be accompanied by the appropriate registration fees to be eligible for the registration discount. Registration fees cover attendance for all meetings, Breakfast, working lunch and coffee breaks. Entertainment and tour fees are additional. Lodging is not included in the registration fees.

Non-Member Participation

Participants from non-member companies are welcome to attend the meeting and all functions. Non-member participants may attend one association meeting as a first-time registrant and are entitled to the member registration rate. Participation at a second meeting as a non-member is permitted at non-member registration rates. Attendance at additional meetings is by special invitation.

Cancellations & Refunds

Requests for cancellation of meeting registration or guest tickets must be received in writing at the MSC office. Cancellations received by August 1, 2023, will be subject to a cancellation fee of 25%, which will be deducted from the refund. No refund will be made for cancellation requests received after August 1, 2023.

Limits of Liability

The planners and sponsors of the MSC Plant Managers Trainng Course and any associated events claim no liability for the acts of any supplier to this meeting, nor for the safety of any attendee while in transit to or from this event. Attendees who purchase non-refundable airline tickets do so at their own risk. In the event of meeting cancellation, the total amount of liability of the planners and sponsors will be limited to a refund of the registration fee. Submission of the registration form acknowledges acceptance of these provisions.

Join the Mulch & Soil Council & Receive an Immediate Discount

Non-members of MSC may join the Council at any time prior to the Annual Meeting and receive an immediate discount on the registration fee. For information on becoming a member, contact the MSC office at (806) 832-1810

Event Program
Wednesday, August 23

8:00a - 8:45a	Continental Breakfast - Spronsored By Vermeer Corp.
8:45a - 9:00a	Introductions & Welcome.
9:00a - 10:30a	FIRE SAFETY BMPs Part 1- Inventory Monitoring: Temperature Sampling, Smoke Detection, Pile Size, Distance Between Piles (Access), Weather. Site Issues: Prevailing Winds, Drainage, Water Supply, Equipment Access, Fire Equipment Access. Facility Issues: Fire Detection, Automatic/Manual Fire Suppression In Buildings, Ventilation, Volatile Dust Control, Flammable Chem & Supply Storage, Proper Extinguishers For Materials In Area, Daytime/Off-Hour/Holiday Firewatch BMPs. Instructor: Don Dugger, The Scotts Company (Retired), Lawrenceville, VA
10:30a - 10:45am	Break
10:45a - 12:15a	FIRE SAFETY BMPs Part 2 - Fire Action Plan: Minor Incident Inventory Or Equipment, Significant Incident Inventory Or Equipment, Major Incident Inventory Or Equipment, Internal Information Flow, External Information Flow/Notifications. Fire Extinguishing Protocols: Equipment, Personnel, Procedures, Internal And External Resource Controller & Coordinator. Instructor: Don Dugger, The Scotts Company (Retired), Lawrenceville, VA
12:15p - 1:30p	Working Lunch Sponsored by Colorbiotics
1:30p - 3:15p	FIRE SAFETY BMPs Part 3 - Interactive reviews and critiques of actual fire event videos and what was done right or wrong and the outcome of such decisions. Instructor: Don Dugger, The Scotts Company (Retired), Lawrenceville, VA
3:15p - 3:30p	Break
3:30p - 5:00p	The Importance of Maintenance: Four Key Strategies to Sustain Lasting Improvements - For many mulch and soil operations maintenance is not always top of mind and often treated as an “as needed” business practice. Most have good intentions, but over time the weight of juggling a bustling business leads to an approach of fail and fix. Ted Dirkx will share four key strategies on how to justify the investment in maintenance, how to better prepare your team for success, how operational decisions influence it, and how you can tap into resources you didn’t even know you had. The goal of this presentation is to challenge an operations approach of fail and fix and inspire a more proactive mindset of predict and prevent. Instructor: Ted Dirkx, Vermeer Corporation
5:00p	Course Ends
Registration Fees	Members = $349/person / Non-Members = $550/person
Download a meeting registration form: Plant Managers Training Course Registration Form.

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A special block of rooms has been set-aside for MSC meeting participants. The preferred guest rate for MSC members is: $135 (+tax)/night. The deadline for discounted room rates and space availability is when the block is filled or August 1, 2023 - WHICHEVER COMES FIRST.

Space is limited! You will be sent a hotel reservation link as soon as your training course registration is comfirmed.

More general information about Caesar's Palace Hotel is available at: HOTEL INFO