This is the first in a series of posts about the 2016 Synergist reader survey.

AIHA’s triennial Synergist reader survey recently concluded, and on behalf of the AIHA staff I’d like to offer my sincere thanks to everyone who took the time to share their feedback. We received responses from more than 1,100 individuals—by far the largest number of responses we’ve ever received, and almost twice the number of respondents to the 2013 survey—for a response rate of more than 12 percent. Your feedback is invaluable to us as we prepare our editorial calendar for 2017 and consider ways that we can keep the magazine and its digital offshoots relevant for our audience. I’m looking forward to digging into the results and sharing my thoughts from time to time on this blog.

But a deep dive isn’t necessary to identify a clear theme. A quick read through the survey comments reveals that a fair number of respondents are either unaware that AIHA publishes two weekly e-newsletters (The Synergist Weekly and Synergist Newswire) or confused about the differences between the two. That’s a significant problem of awareness, but thankfully one that should be pretty easy to correct, starting with this post.

The Synergist Weekly, published on Wednesdays, is AIHA’s primary vehicle for covering news about the OEHS industry and AIHA. (A sample issue is available on the AIHA website.) The activities of U.S. government agencies—OSHA, NIOSH, EPA, CSB, among others—and their Canadian and European counterparts are the Weekly’s major focus; also included are relevant news and publications from universities, related nonprofits, and research organizations such as IRSST. In addition, the Weekly is where you’re most likely to find items about AIHA courses, webinars, conferences, and publications. And every issue of the Weekly features a link to the digital version of an article from the current Synergist.

While all of the content in the Weekly originates from AIHA, Synergist Newswire primarily serves as a conduit to coverage of OEHS-related topics by media organizations. A typical issue ofNewswire will send readers to articles at Bloomberg BNA about OSHA’s forthcoming beryllium rule; at Reuters about EPA’s glyphosate review; at the Washington Post about the soon-to-be-finalized reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act; and at CBC.com about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s stated wish to ban asbestos. All of those stories appeared in the May 20 issue of Newswire, as did articles from smaller publications like Environmental Leader (“Do Chemical Assessments Work?”), the National Law Review (“New OSHA Rule Requires Companies to Make Records Public”), and Pharmacy Practice News (“USP <800>: Compliance or Complacency?”).

Some survey respondents indicated that they aren’t receiving one or both of our newsletters. There are a few possible reasons why that might be the case. You’ll want to make sure that the e-mail addresses [email protected] and [email protected] (the unmonitored addresses from which we send the Weekly and Newswire, respectively) are whitelisted in your e-mail program or added to your “safe senders” list. If they are and you’re still not receiving the newsletters, e-mail me and our staff will look into it.

Finally, if you have any suggestions for either of our newsletters, don’t hesitate to let me know either in the comments or by e-mail.