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Dairy, Food and Environmental Sanitation

Commentary From The Executive Director
November, 2000

Thank you for your support of the International Association for Food Protection and our Annual Meeting
By David W. Tharp, IAFP Executive Director

This issue of DFES is dedicated to the memory of Tanya Wheeler. Tanya was our Audiovisual Library Coordinator for the past 5 years. Although she had many challenges both medically and physically, she accepted those challenges and excelled in life. Tanya was just 30 years old when she passed away on October 1st. Our sympathies are extended to her family and friends. See page 833 for a memorial to Tanya.

In this issue of Dairy, Food and Environmental Sanitation, we report on the 87th Annual Meeting held last August. If you were unable to be with us in Atlanta, the summary provided will give you details of what you missed. If you were able to attend, we hope you enjoy reviewing the highlights of the Atlanta meeting. The Annual Meeting report begins on page 849 and includes many pictures, a narrative of events, minutes of committee meetings and the business meeting, and pictures of award presentations. We hope that you enjoy the review of our record-breaking Meeting.

The 87th Annual Meeting had 1,318 people in attendance from more than 30 countries around the world. We are certainly proud to know that so many food safety professionals choose to attend our Meeting for the latest scientific information on protecting the food supply. Again this year, our attendance broke previous records. Add to that, the record number of new Members and first-time attendees and it makes for the best conference on food safety in the world. By the way, we welcomed new Members and first-time attendees again this year at our Saturday afternoon reception. Close to 100 people attended this orientation to the Annual Meeting and the Association. Thanks are extended to Committee Chairpersons, Affiliate representatives and Members who helped welcome attendees during the reception.

We are fortunate to have many people working together with one goal in mind - to make the IAFP Annual Meeting the best educational conference on food safety anywhere in the world. This year was no exception! The Georgia Association of Food and Environmental Sanitarians (GAFES) with their Co-Chairpersons; Ed Giera, Judy Harrison and Pam Metheny led the way by providing volunteers to assist our staff with registration, hospitality, and audiovisual needs. Every time we turned around, there were more GAFES members ready to help. Thanks to Ed, Judy, Pam and the whole GAFES membership for your excellent help.
This year there were over 300 presentations at the Annual Meeting. It is rewarding to know that each year more people are willing, and want to make presentations at the IAFP Annual Meeting. This shows the importance of what we are doing and the stature our Meeting has achieved. Thank you to everyone who gave presentations this past year. You ARE the Meeting and the reason we attract a worldwide audience. With your dedication to the Association, we will continue to thrive.

Many of our symposia topics are generated by our Professional Development Groups (PDGs). First, thank you to all developers of symposia and next, thank you specifically to our PDGs who developed and presented symposia of interest to our attendees. Everyone has an opportunity to become involved in the IAFP Annual Meeting through the PDG system. PDGs meet at the Annual Meeting and develop proposed symposia for the next Annual Meeting. If you are interested and not involved, contact our office to learn how you may share your expertise with our attendees.

Groups other than PDGs are also invited to submit symposia for consideration. One such group that has continually done so since 1993 is the ILSI Technical Committee on Food Microbiology. ILSI is the International Life Sciences Institute and they provide funding for current research. Our Meeting provides an avenue for ILSI to present their findings. The arrangement has worked well for both ILSI and IAFP. We thank ILSI for their support over the past 8 years and we look forward to many more years of mutual benefit between our organizations.

It is the job of the Program Committee to set the program schedule for each Annual Meeting. David Golden, from the University of Tennessee, was the Chairperson for the 2000 Program Committee. With a record number of papers submitted, the Committee labored long and hard this year. Thank you, David, and your Committee for the many hours each of you contributed over the past year. Your efforts surely paid great dividends!

Sponsors play an important role in our conference. Through sponsorship funds, we are able to offer amenities to our attendees that we might not otherwise be able to provide. Our deepest thanks to everyone who helped provide sponsorship for the 2000 Annual Meeting. A list of sponsors is shown on page 862. We encourage you to do business with our sponsors and to thank them for supporting the Association. A personal thanks from you to one of the sponsor representatives may help assure their continued support.

Last but not least, I want to thank our staff for the hours and hours of work they put forth to produce the finest food safety conference in the world. Frank, Beth, Donna, Bev, Didi, Karla, Pam, Lisa, Julie, and Lucia; you have done it again! Thanks to each of you for your work and dedication to the Association. It is truly my pleasure to work with each of you!

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your support of the International Association for Food Protection and our Annual Meeting. We look forward to next year's conference, IAFP 2001 - the Association's 88th Annual Meeting. Mark your calendars
now for August 5 to 8 and plan on being with us in Minneapolis. With your support, we will continue to grow, become stronger and we will continue to "Advance Food Safety Worldwide."

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