Food Protection Trends

COMMENTARY from the Executive Director
September 2006

"Our new publication, the electronic newsletter, will contain IAFP updates, food safety news, regulatory updates and research or short reports.”
By David W. Tharp, IAFP Executive Director

The September column is always a difficult column to write because as you read this column, our Annual Meeting has been completed for at least two weeks, but as I am writing, it is still two weeks prior to the meeting! We feel as if IAFP 2006 will be another very successful meeting and all of our pre-meeting indicators tell us that this is true. But, until the meeting takes place, it is difficult to determine the outcome and report upon it realistically. Thus, one of the difficulties of a print publication such as Food Protection Trends.

This got me thinking about providing an update on a few changes that could be in store. First, we are addressing the problem we encounter in quickly transferring information to IAFP Members through our print journals. Upon the conclusion of the Business Meeting at IAFP 2006, we will know whether the Membership accepted changes that will assist IAFP in communicating more rapidly with its Members. A couple of Bylaws changes will allow us to initiate an electronic newsletter that can be quickly assembled and distributed to Members with current content and items of interest.

A change would not eliminate or even change the content of FPT, but will allow IAFP to be more flexible with its communication methods. If the Bylaws changes were approved, the electronic newsletter will become the “official publication” for IAFP. Food Protection Trends has served this function since its beginning in 1980. The changes that you see as an IAFP Member will not be noticeable if you choose to continue receiving the print journals.

Food Protection Trends will continue to carry science-based, applications oriented articles, news, updates, and new industry products along with new Members and Annual Meeting information. Our new publication, the electronic newsletter, will contain IAFP updates, food safety news, regulatory updates and research or short reports. Many items will link to the IAFP Web page to keep you current on IAFP activities.

One of the driving forces behind the electronic newsletter is an effort to reduce the base Membership fees and to attract additional food safety professionals to IAFP. This caused us to take a look at a total dues restructure that will allow Members to select the journals or comm-unications that you want. The base Membership fee will include the electronic newsletter. From there, you can choose to add Food Protection Trends, or the Journal of Food Protect-ion, or both, or neither. You may add JFP Online to any combination of Membership options. In this manner, you get exactly what is of interest to you!

For those who are on a tight budget or those who may have access to journals through a library, this Member may only need to be a Member at the base level. Others (like me) would not want to give up the print versions of FPT or JFP and will want to continue to receive those publications. Still others may enjoy the flexibility of JFP Online and may not have the space to store back issues, so they may want to choose JFP Online along with the base Membership, thus saving valuable funds. The wonderful feature about this system is that you, the IAFP Member, have the opportunity to choose exactly what you want!

The second issue that was voted on at the Annual Business Meeting was to allow electronic voting in the Secretary election. Again, we do not know the outcome (at the time I am writing this article), but should it pass the vote, we expect voter participation to increase. We have seen a steady decline in the number of ballots cast in the Secretary election over the past 5 to 10 years. It used to be that we would receive ballots from about 35% of the eligible voters. Now, we are down to 25%.

Many associations have migrated to electronic voting to make it easier for Members to cast their ballot and they have seen increased participation. The IAFP Executive Board wanted our Constitution and Bylaws to be able to accommodate an electronic vote, when appropriate. If the vote passes at the Business Meeting, because a change to the Constitution is also necessary, we will then have
to distribute a mail ballot on this issue to all IAFP Members. That vote needs to pass by a two-thirds majority of votes received in order to be implemented.

Once all this is completed, and assuming it passes, we do not intend to conduct an electronic vote until 2008 because of the short amount of time until the next election (February 2007). The Executive Board wanted to have enough time to properly notify IAFP Members of this change.

We look forward to imple-menting these changes and hope that they make your Membership more valuable to you. Both the electronic newsletter and the dues restructure are slated to start up in January of 2007. As your Membership comes up for renewal throughout 2007, you will then be able to choose the options that fit your needs. Look for electronic voting to begin in 2008.

If you have any questions about these changes, feel free to contact me at the IAFP office.