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<< back to the 1999 archive listing << Dairy, Food and Environmental Sanitation Quotations From Jack, October 1999 You may be able to help someone else with their career just by getting them
to join our Association One of the constant challenges professional organizations face is maintaining and growing membership. Many of us are not naturally inclined to be sales people and to go out and find new members or we just do not have the time. Rather than trying the usual pep talk to encourage you to identify new members I thought I would share with you the impact Membership in IAMFES has had in one person's career. You may be able to help someone else with their career just by getting them to join our Association. I started as a sanitarian in the Glens Falls District Office of the New York State Department of Health in the fall of 1970. Very early on I was given a stack of reference materials to become familiar with. One of those was a little booklet Procedure for the Investigation of Foodborne Disease Outbreaks - Second Edition 1966 published by IAMFES. I still have that booklet. I actually enjoyed reading it as the subject was very interesting and the "how to" approach of writing was much more practical than most of the stuff I had to become familiar with. That winter and following spring I attended the 12-week Basic Environmental Health course all new sanitarians were required to take. At the end of that course the training officer gave us a "fatherly" talk about our careers and how to pursue them. One of his strongest pieces of advice was to join one or more of several professional organizations he named. We were to read their publications and become active members e.g., join committees, run for office. I joined the New York State Association of Milk and Food Sanitarians, IAMFES, and the National Environmental Health Association soon thereafter and I still belong to all three. I soon began receiving the Journal of Milk and Food Technology, now called the Journal of Food Protection. Many of the articles were over my head, but it was a challenge to read them and to see all of the fascinating things going on in food safety. I took particular note of the articles written by Dr. Frank Bryan who had become the chair of the Committee for Communicable Diseases Affecting Man and a frequent author in the Journal of Milk and Food Technology. In 1973-74, I took a one-year leave of absence from my job to attend the University of Minnesota where I earned a master's of public health degree. One of the courses I took was food microbiology taught by Dr. Frank Busta, by no small coincidence a frequent contributor to articles I was reading in the Journal of Milk and Food Technology. I also learned about HACCP from Dr. Busta and decided that I would do everything I could do to encourage HACCP use in the food industry. In 1976 Procedures to Investigate Foodborne Illness - Third Edition 1976 was published and became an important part of my reference materials. In 1980, I moved to the central office of the New York State Department of Health where I took on the task of developing an active foodborne disease surveillance program for the state. One of the first things I did was develop a policy that cited the IAMFES Procedures to Investigate Foodborne Illness as our official procedure for outbreak investigations and the forms in the book as the forms to be used. After collecting foodborne disease data for three years we had clear evidence of the contributing factors leading to outbreaks in the state and solid justification to move our regulatory program to HACCP. By that time I was also the lead person for the food service regulatory program in the state. I called on Frank Bryan, who I had gotten to know through his many IAMFES publications and subsequent phone conversations, to assist us in developing the program and train our staff in HACCP. In the mid 1980s I attended my first IAMFES Annual Meeting in response to an invitation to speak about our New York program. I was thrilled! In later years I was able to attend IAMFES Annual Meetings on a regular basis and to join the Committee for Communicable Diseases Affecting Man. I am proud to have been a contributor to two editions of Procedures to Investigate Foodborne Illness, one edition of Procedures to Investigate Waterborne Illness and Procedures to Implement the HACCP System. In 1997, I joined the FDA where I now am Foodborne Outbreak Coordinator for the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. I still refer to the Procedures to Investigate Foodborne Illness all the time. At the Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, Past President Harold Bengsch asked me to run for secretary of the organization and to my surprise I was elected! One of the most gratifying experiences in my time as a Member of IAMFES has been being a Member of the Executive Board and helping to select Dr. Frank Bryan and Dr. Frank Busta as two of the first Members to receive our Fellows Award. Over the many years, the IAMFES journals have been my monthly textbook on microbial food safety. The Annual Meetings have brought me up to date on breaking issues in food safety and have been an excellent opportunity to network with the movers and shakers in the food safety arena. Participation on the Program Committee, the Committee on Communicable Diseases Affecting Man and several Professional Development Groups have provided me with the opportunity to contribute as well as learn from other professionals who share common interests. Now I am honored to be President of the Association and I am hoping that others early in their careers can be as fortunate as I have been in being a Member. Unfortunately, I do not know all of the potential Members out there, but you do. You can give these individuals the encouragement to join an organization that can help them on their road to a successful career. Take a minute to jot down the names of those folks and make it a point to ask them to join the Association as soon as possible. Some day they will thank you. |