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Dairy, Food and Environmental Sanitation

Commentary From The Executive Director
August, 2001

Plan now for IAFP 2002
By David W. Tharp, IAFP Executive Director

It is hard to believe that another year has passed us by, but by the time you read this column, IAFP 2001 — the 88th Annual Meeting will be completed! We have a few ways to measure
a year at the International Association for Food Protection. One is by the calendar, January to December; one is by our Annual Meeting, normally the first weekend in August each year;
and one is by the financial year, September 1 to August 31. Many accomplishments take place throughout the year and can overlap each of our year measurements.

Today, I want to discuss the Annual Meeting year — from August to August. I have said this before, but we many times refer to the "88th Annual Meeting" without ever thinking how important that "88" is or what it may mean. In our case, 88 refers to how many Annual Meetings this Association has held. Eighty-eight Annual Meetings or conferences to discuss how to better serve the public with a safer food supply! Eighty-eight – just think for a minute, 88 years of coming together to form life-long bonds between food safety professionals. What has that meant to the United States of America, to North America, to the World? Look at how this Association and our 88 Annual Meetings have affected the world we live in today!

We ask the question many times, "What does the IAFP Annual Meeting mean to attendees?" It means meeting face-to-face with colleagues, it means discussing pressing issues, it means arriving at decisions, and it means learning methods that can change processes that lead to a more healthful, more wholesome product for the consumer. The Annual Meeting provides connectivity to the information you need to carry out your job duties and responsibilities. If you missed the 88th Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, begin your plans now, because you certainly will not want to miss IAFP 2002 in San Diego. Note that our meeting date is moved forward and begins on June 30, concluding on July 3 in 2002. This date shift was necessary to make the hotel room rate economical (we saved more than $50 per night over August’s rates!).

So, the next Annual Meeting year will be a short year, only 11 months. This will affect our internal planning, but will not affect much for you as an attendee. You will only have to mark your calendar with the appropriate date, make your hotel reservation early, and plan to be in San Diego on June 30, 2002!

We have some milestones quickly approaching. The 90th Annual Meeting will be held in 2003 in New Orleans (see page 705) and the 100th Anniversary of the beginning of the Association will take place in the year 2010. We look forward to celebrating these high points in the Association’s history and hope that you do too.

From the beginning mission of the Association to today, we have always been intently interested in protecting the food supply to provide products that consumers have confidence in when serving meals to their family or purchasing restaurant meals. We have come a long way since 1911 and continue to evolve as an Association to meet the needs of our Members. The Annual Meeting serves Members by providing current research presentations and connectivity to resources you can use throughout your career. Plan NOW for IAFP 2002; you owe it to yourself and your profession!

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