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<< back to the 2001 archive listing << Dairy, Food and Environmental Sanitation Commentary From The Executive Director This month,I want to take the opportunity to discuss some
selected survey results and comments from IAFP 2001 This is the first opportunity to report on IAFP 2001 since the meeting was held in early August. We are pleased to report that we set a new record number of attendees at 1,385! This was a 5% increase over the prior year —just think, it wasn’t too long ago that we were trying so hard to break 1,000. It is great to be experiencing this type of growth in our Annual Meeting. Next month in the November issue of Dairy, Food and Environmental Sanitation, we will present the summary of IAFP 2001. This month, I want to take the opportunity to discuss some selected survey results and comments from IAFP 2001. First, let me thank everyone who responded to the E-mail survey sent to attendees after completion of our 88th Annual Meeting. We sent more than 1,000 surveys and received a 34% response rate! To compare, in recent years we included a paper survey with our program materials. Typically, we received between 30 to 50 responses! Quite an improvement in response rate when using E-mail – again, thanks for taking time to complete the survey and sending us your thoughts. We will provide results of the survey in November’s DFES, but to repeat, this month I want to discuss selected survey comments. Many of the responses were complimentary of the presentation content, the meeting organization, the Ivan Parkin Lecture (Opening Session), and the exhibit hall. We enjoy hearing these comments, but a few of the comments contained constructive input for consideration. Those are the ones that I want to spend time with now. New Member and First-time Attendee Reception. We received a few comments about this event. One respondent asked if anyone attended this reception on Saturday afternoon (since most attendees arrive on Sunday). Another asked if the reception couldn’t be held on another day, maybe Tuesday. To answer the first question, yes we had an excellent attendance at the reception — more than 100 people! In response to the second comment, the reason the reception is held on Saturday is to introduce new Members and first-time attendees to long-time Members and to invite them (first-time attendees) to attend Committee meetings on Sunday. This, of course, would not be possible if we held the reception on a day later, during the Meeting. It is worth noting our Committee and PDG meetings are open to anyone who is interested. PDGs accept Member and nonmembers to their membership and anyone may attend our Committee meetings so plan to arrive early next year in San Diego to participate in the Committee meetings! Banquet vs. no banquet vs. Tuesday banquet. There were multiple comments received about the Wednesday evening Awards Banquet. Some say it is too long, some say it is a great event as it is; some say do away with dinner, some say move it to Tuesday; some say don’t include it in registration fees, and some cannot attend unless it is included in the registration fee. This appears to be an age-old problem without a solution that will satisfy everyone, so let’s see if we can rationalize a response. The Award Banquet’s purpose is to gather attendees to honor all Award recipients. We do this in a formal setting, which is an appropriate way to recognize the recipient’s work and their dedication to the profession. This year, we had 350 attendees at the Banquet, which has been steadily increasing over the last 5 years. I suppose this could be done without a banquet (dinner), but how many people do you expect would be in the audience if we attempted to present awards at 7:30 p.m. or 8:00 p.m. on either Tuesday or Wednesday evening? I believe the Banquet ticket was included in the registration fee beginning about 10 years ago. This was done to allow attendees who wanted to attend the Banquet to be able to attend without further burdening their budgets. We know in advance that not everyone will attend the Banquet on Wednesday night (not everyone would attend even if we held the Banquet on Tuesday!), so if we were to remove the banquet ticket from our registration fee, the conference registration fee would not be reduced by the full banquet ticket price ($45). You might expect only a $10 or $15 reduction in registration fee by removing the Banquet. Then attendees wanting to attend the Banquet would have to pay more than $50 to cover the cost of the Banquet. I certainly think attendance would suffer under this scenario. When we consider moving the Banquet to Tuesday, a complication is presented with the Developing Scientists Competition. Students are still in competition on Wednesday morning and the judging panel meets at noon Wednesday. We surely want to be able to recognize the student winners in a public setting! I’m sure the Executive Board will discuss this input during an upcoming Board meeting, but as stated earlier, I don’t believe there is a solution that fits everyone’s needs. Tuesday afternoon schedule. There were multiple comments urging additional sessions on Tuesday afternoon. The Program Committee has already addressed this suggestion and recommended replacing the general session with three or so "mini-symposia" (two-hour sessions) to be presented on Tuesday afternoon prior to the Business Meeting. Cost of registration. A few responses questioned the cost of registration. As I explained at the Business Meeting, IAFP is not a "rich" Association. Our budget is VERY tight. We work diligently to put every Member’s dollar to work for you, the IAFP Members. This goes for Annual Meeting registration dollars too! If a comparison is performed on meetings presenting similar, food science and food safety information over three days of intense sessions, I don’t believe you can find another meeting offering what we do for the same or lower prices. For the in-depth program we offer, our registration fee is an absolute bargain! Another comment was received regarding persons approaching retirement. It is on the registration form, but we should point out that retirees are able to register at a much-reduced rate. To qualify, the Member must be a retired Member (fully retired, not receiving compensation for work in areas related to IAFP’s interests). I hope that this short review of survey comments shows that we have taken your input seriously. We will consider each and every comment individually. The number of responses received was very impressive, along with the thoughts and time that respondents put into their comments. It is through Members’ input that change occurs. Change is a part of the natural evolutionary process that keeps things new. Without change, we are doing the same things the same ways that we did them yesterday. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts! |