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<< back to the 1999 archive listing << Dairy, Food and Environmental Sanitation Commentary From The Executive Director Again, I join with Jack to ask for your assistance in providing historical
information about the Association As our new President Jack Guzewich states in his column, "by the time you read this column, the IAMFES 86th Annual Meeting will be over …" In Jack's first paragraph, he discusses the Constitution and Bylaws vote that was taken at the Meeting. He had to assume that the vote passes because his column was written prior to the beginning of August. Well, I have one advantage that Jack did not have and that is that I could wait until the Meeting was concluded to complete my column! I can tell you that the verbal vote taken overwhelmingly accepted the proposed Constitution and Bylaws, thereby accepting the new Association name: "International Association for Food Protection." Now, we also want you to realize that this is not the end of the process. Even if you were unable to attend the Annual Business Meeting, you now have an opportunity to voice your support of the new name. After the positive vote, ballots were mailed to all IAMFES Members in good standing. Your ballot, with information filled out correctly, must be received in the IAMFES office not later than September 30, 1999 in order to be a valid vote. Please follow the instructions on the Ballot Envelope to ensure your vote will be counted. The vote results will be announced officially in the November issue of Dairy, Food and Environmental Sanitation. Results will also be announced at the IAMFES Web site (www. iamfes.org) by October 15th. Another topic that Jack discusses in his column is the history of IAMFES, how we began, where we have been, contributions the Association and Members have made to a safer food supply, and the many contributions to dairy product quality and safety. He has an excellent idea to accumulate a history of IAMFES from Members' memories and written articles in our early journals. We join with Jack to invite our long-time Members to write about your experiences early in your careers. I'm certain that if you take the time to do so, other Members will find this information very interesting! Both young Members and long-time Members can benefit from your knowledge and expertise. Our newer Members can gain a sense of "how it was" before they became interested in food safety. They will recognize the improvement of conditions and our environment that have taken place in the last 20, 30 or 40 years! Some of our longtime Members will have their memories jogged from reading your thoughts. Please take time to write your part of IAMFES history. If you need assistance from our office to gather articles or information that appeared in archived IAMFES journals, please contact me at the Des Moines office. We will be happy to assist you in your research as we have most all of the Association journals back to 1927! We also have an "Index of the Twenty-Five Annual Reports of the International Association of Dairy and Milk Inspectors 1912-1936." On a sad note, we are missing the Annual Reports from 1912 through 1926. Can you help us out? Do you know where we can obtain these publications? I want to share just a couple of items from some of these old journals with you to hopefully stimulate your interest. First, in the 1927 issue of the Annual Report, the earliest that we have available, Dr. W. A. Shoults from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada states in his Presidential Address that nine Members formed the Association in October of 1911 and now (after 16 years) it has grown to about 180 Members. It is too late to run this report in this issue of DFES, but watch the October issue to read the whole report. In October of 1937, a very special journal was available in Louisville, Kentucky when the Association held its Annual Meeting. Volume 1, Number 1 of the Journal of Milk Technology began distribution. The announcement on page 1 read: This, the first issue of the Journal of Milk Technology, is published especially for the Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting of the International Association of Milk Sanitarians at Louisville, Kentucky, October 11-13, 1937. The journal is the official publication of the Association. Beginning in January 1938, the journal will be inaugurated as a bi-monthly publication and will be issued in lieu of the Year Book heretofore published by the Association. The Report of the Special Committee on Association Publication and the editorial the Journal of Milk Technology contained in this issue explain the creation of the journal and its scope. It is anticipated that the Journal of Milk Technology will prove to be a valuable medium to all persons and organizations concerned with any of the various phases of the milk and milk products industry and its man ramifications, whether from the standpoint of its official, industrial, regulatory, quality control, technical or nutritional aspects. The journal will likewise be of interest to the general public and milk consumers. The name of the journal was changed to Journal of Milk and Food Technology in 1947 and has been know as the current Journal of Food Protection since 1977. We will also print the Report of the Special Committee on Association Publication in October's DFES. I think you'll find it interesting. These early Members identified a need, organized a plan, and met their goal so that others may benefit. Do you think they would have ever envisioned what an effect that the Journal of Food Protection has on our food supply today? Another interesting piece of information was found in the September 1938 issue of Journal of Milk Technology. The announcement giving details of the host city for the 1938 Annual Meeting. Cleveland was the site and the Hotel Allerton was the location. Rates at the Allerton were $1.75 with running water, $2.00 with running water and a lavatory and $2.50 for a room with a private bath! Suites, with a living room, bedroom and bath were available for $7.00. My how times have changed! Again, I join with Jack to ask for your assistance in providing historical information about the Association. I also ask that you return your ballot in a timely manner so that you can help shape the future of the Association. Thank you for your support of this great (historical) organization! |