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<< back to the 2000 archive listing << Dairy, Food and Environmental Sanitation Commentary From The Executive Director Do your part to spread the word about the International Association for
Food Protection This month, I want to cover a number of topics affecting the Association. We will discuss recent Membership growth, our first workshop outside of the United States and Canada, a recent retirement and a new Sustaining Member Program that benefits our Annual Meeting and the IAFP Foundation. Let’s begin with the Sustaining Member Program. From talking with many of our Sustaining Members, we learned they wanted, and were willing to support the Association’s mission in additional ways. As we surveyed a sample of Sustaining Members and discussed this idea further, we then developed a tiered plan for supporting IAFP and the Foundation. More details are presented on page 933, so I will just outline program highlights here. We established three levels of support; base at $750, silver at $2,500, and gold at $5,000. With each level of support payment, the Sustaining Member receives enhanced benefit values such as additional Memberships and reduced cost of exhibiting at the Annual Meeting. The wonderful element of this new program is that a substantial portion of the silver and gold Sustaining Membership fee goes directly to the IAFP Foundation Fund to establish a speaker support mechanism. This will expand our capability of providing travel assistance to Annual Meeting speakers. Many companies and organizations that are currently Sustaining Members indicated they felt the Annual Meeting provided educational opportunities for their employees at a reasonable cost for many years. They reacted positively when asked if they were willing to join as a gold or silver Sustaining Member knowing that part of their fee went directly to support Annual Meeting speakers. We are encouraged by the immediate support this program has gained and look forward to further growth. Speaking of growth, our Membership growth has been great to witness. Membership has grown by more than 10% since 1997. Prior to that, we were declining in Member numbers. We feel we can produce additional growth with your help. Help promote Membership in IAFP so that more food safety professionals have access to the same information that you find valuable. Forward names to our office and we will send materials to prospective Members. Easier yet, suggest your colleagues visit the Web site (www.foodprotection.org) to learn more about our Journals and Annual Meeting. Do your part to spread the word about the Inter-national Association for Food Protection! We continue to encourage growth in countries outside of the United States and Canada. Establishing an Affiliate in Mexico allowed us to hold our first work-shop outside of the United States and Canada last month. The work-shop in Guadalajara, Mexico presented current information on import issues relating to bringing produce into the US. We were pleased with the interest and participant comments and plan to build on this type of inter-national involvement. We look to future international growth that will allow us to continue presentations of workshops and seminars beyond North America. To close out for this month, I want to make mention of a recent retirement from the 3-A Administrative Symbol Council. At the end of this month, Earl Wright will conclude his service to the Symbol Council. Recently, I attended a dinner in his honor. Earl received recognition for his 30 years of service to the Council. In addition, I was able to present some comments on behalf of IAFP. Earl joined the Association in 1948; he began as Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist in Dairy and Food Science at Iowa State University in 1954; he served as our President in 1973-74 and served 10 years as the Executive Secretary for this Association from 1974 until 1983! Earl received Honorary Life Membership in 1989, the Citation Award in 1997 and was inducted as a Fellow in 1999. Another fact about Earl that impressed me was his continuous attendance at the past 40 Annual Meetings! Beginning with 1961, he has not missed an Annual Meeting — that is more than dedication! Earl, we appreciate all that you have done for the Association and for the safety of our milk and food supply during your career. We want to see you at many, many more Annual Meetings! Earl is just one of many mentors and role models that can be found in the Association Membership. I hope you will strive to follow in Earl’s footsteps and serve as a leader in the International Association for Food Protection! |