The world’s oldest professional safety society, founded more than 100 years ago, will adopt a new name following a historic membership vote that was overwhelmingly in favor of the change. The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) will become the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) next year when it unveils a redesigned website in conjunction with Safety 2018 in San Antonio. The switch was approved by 74 percent of voting members.
Over a 45-day period that ended August 13, ASSE members around the world cast electronic votes on the new name. The final tally was 3,651 in favor and 1,267 opposed, easily reaching a majority decision. It also was no problem obtaining the minimum voting requirement of 1 percent of ASSE’s eligible members as 14 percent cast ballots. The new name had been unanimously recommended by the ASSE Board of Directors in January and was supported by its House of Delegates in June at Safety 2017 in Denver.