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Perspectives from North of the 49th “I know this is going to be a great year for IAFP and its Members” Well, everyone, here is my very first column in Food Protection Trends. I can’t tell you how proud I am and how fortunate I feel to be serving as your President for the next year! I also cannot believe how fast time has gone since I was elected Secretary some three years ago. It seems like just yesterday. Well, I have learned numerous things about IAFP these last three years and hope to keep on learning for many years to come. Now, many people have asked me what exactly have I learned since becoming Secretary, so, I will now give you my “top ten list” (not in any order, as all are very important!): 1. What an incredible organization IAFP really is; 2. How truly dedicated all IAFP staff members are; 3. The true strength of the organization really lies in all of you, as you are tremendous ambassadors for IAFP; 4. How critically important our Affiliates are; 5. The importance of listening to all members, as well as IAFP Staff, to truly get to know the heartbeat of our Association; 6. The true importance of our Professional Development Groups; 7. That we need to keep building up our Foundation Fund, so that we can continue to be the premier food safety organization in the world; 8. That the various committees are run by highly dedicated and involved people who truly make a difference in our Association; 9. That the Program Committee, which plays a large role in developing our Annual Meeting Program is very well-run, as evidenced by our excellent scientific programming; 10. Students are truly the building blocks of our organization and we need to do even more than we are doing at present to attract and keep students coming to our Annual Meeting and getting involved in our Association. Just to give you a little background on myself, my wife Barbara and I have three children. Melanie, our eldest, is entering Osgoode Hall Law School (situated in Toronto) this year; Allison, our middle child is going into her third year at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario in the health sciences area, and Brandon, our youngest, is starting his first year at the University of Western Ontario in the area of business. Barbara also works for the Federal Government in the area of disability pensions for the Income Securities Programs. We have lived in Ottawa for just over 20 years now, having been born and raised in Montreal. So, yes, we are Montreal Canadian hockey fans and loved the Expos, who now are situated in Washington, D.C.! After finishing my Ph.D. at McGill University in food microbiology, I did a post-doctoral fellowship at Health Canada, and have been there ever since. I started off as a research scientist, went on to become Research Division Chief, Associate-Director, and then, Director of the Bureau of Microbial Hazards, Food Directorate, Health Canada. I have a wonderful pro-fessional staff of about 55 people who work in the areas of research, risk assessment and policy in the microbial food safety area. As you read this column, you will hopefully have arrived safely at home after having attended our Annual Meeting in Baltimore. As of now, it is shaping up to be our biggest and best meeting ever! I would really love to hear from you about your experiences at the Annual Meeting and your advice and suggestions on how we could possibly improve upon it. I know that this is going to be a great year for IAFP and its members. We start off with our Annual Meeting, then we will be having our first ever IAFP meeting in Europe. This first “IAFP Symposium on Food Safety” will be held in Prague, The Czech Republic on October 11–12, 2005. Then, we are a sponsor of an ICMSF meeting on microbiological criteria, which will be held October 31–November 1, 2005 in Washington, D.C. Hopefully, you will have picked up brochures on these two exciting events at our Annual Meeting, but if not, please visit our Web site for more information. You will be hearing more about these meetings in future columns. I would like to thank Stephanie Olmsted, who has completed her one-year term representing the Affiliate Council on the Board. Stephanie has really done an outstanding job and will be missed. Our new incoming Chairperson, Terry Peters, is a fellow Canadian. I know that Terry is very excited about taking over as Chair and will also do a great job. I would also like to recognize two other exceptional IAFP members, our Past President, Dr. Paul Hall, who will be leaving the IAFP Executive Board this year, and Dr. Kathy Glass, who will now be Past President. These two individuals are both highly dedicated and totally devoted to IAFP. They have both worked extremely hard for the Association and I am certain that they will continue to do so for many years. We are also very excited to have Dr. Stan Bailey join our Executive Board! I really look forward to communicating with you in this column in the coming year. Any and all ideas or suggestions you have on any aspect of IAFP would be very much appreciated. Please let me know your views, ideas, opinions, etc., on anything and everything! Even though I am North of the 49th, I am only an E-mail away at jeff_farber@hc-sc.gc.ca . Until next time… Quote of the month : The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed. Carl Jung Have a great month! |