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<< back to the 2002 archive listing << Dairy, Food and Environmental Sanitation Commentary From The Executive Director We live in the most modern of times How fortunate we are. Just take time to look around you and consider how fortunate we are. We have rewarding employment, a place to call home, transportation to move us from place to place; we have family, friends and coworkers to support us. We live in the most modern of times. Think of the changes that have taken place in the world in your own lifetime, the lifetime of your parents, your grandparents. It is now commonplace to travel coast to coast in the USA in a matter of hours. It is quite common to travel to countries around the globe for business meetings and conferences of interest. Technology now allows us to communicate instantly around the world in a matter of seconds. One hundred years ago, we would have to rely upon mail service (by ship) or at best telegraph service. Telegraph response would take days and mail response may take months! My how things have changed and advanced. Do you remember a short 15 or 20 years ago when the fax machine was new technology? Manufacturers boasted that you could send documents around the world in just minutes! Now it seems that E-mail has been here forever, but from my memory, E-mail has been widely used for only four or five years. Web sites are also in their infancy when compared to other technology advancements. So you might ask, where are you going with this topic? Well, here it is; with all of our advances in communicating around the world and the ability to travel quickly around the globe, how can IAFP increase its International Membership and involvement? We have done well with Canadian Members and even made advances with our neighbors in Mexico, but once you look outside of North America, the opportunity for growth is endless. IAFP is looking for input and help from our International Members. We need referrals of your colleagues who we then can contact to invite their membership. Also, we welcome our International Members to send us a short note letting us know why you are an IAFP Member. Over the past few years, we have taken steps to conduct business with a more international approach. Our goal is that all food safety people from around the world should feel welcome to call IAFP home. Our Journals are internationally recognized as leaders in their field and the Annual Meeting attracts increasing number of international attendees each year. Our growth in Mexico can be attributed to the Mexican Affiliate chartered in 1999. Also, it should be mentioned that in 1997, a group from Korea established an Affiliate organization and we have seen nice growth in Members from Korea. Groups or individuals in Brazil and England are working with IAFP and we hope to initiate Affiliates soon in these countries. It only takes five IAFP Members to begin an Affiliate. If you are interested in starting an Affiliate, contact the IAFP office. I want to take this opportunity to encourage our traveling IAFP Members to do their part in promoting the Association to your business associates and colleagues. This applies for Members traveling internationally and domestically as well! We are able to provide you with brochures if that would help make your discussion of IAFP easier. Simply contact our office and we will send you a supply of brochures. What do we have planned for the future to attract International Members? First off, we are working feverishly to place the Journal of Food Protection online to assist all Members in obtaining the research articles from JFP faster and at an economical cost. This will increase the accessibility to JFP articles for all Members, but specifically International Members. In the future, we want to hold a two or three-day IAFP symposium somewhere outside of North America. It is our hope to do this on a two-year cycle. Both of these efforts are designed with our International Members in mind. To summarize for this month, with the technology we have at our hands today, we want to be able to serve our International Member’s needs. We also want to attract new International Members who can assist IAFP in Advancing Food Safety Worldwide! Won’t you please support our efforts? |