Perspectives from North of the 49th
March 2006

“Besides all the activities the Foundation Fund supports, we are also expanding other Member services right now in a very exciting way ”
By Jeffrey Farber, IAFP President        

I spoke to you last month about the future of our organization,
IAFP Student Members. I would like to talk this month about the IAFP Foundation. The IAFP Foundation was established in the 1970s to support the mission of IAFP. The Foundation is currently funded through contributions from corporations and individuals with a large portion of the support provided by the Sustaining Members of IAFP. The Sustaining Member-ship Program is a unique way for organizations to partner with the Association. Many of you know how many important activities the Foundation actually finances. For example, it finances the Developing Scientist Competition, the Audio-visual Library of training tapes, the shipping of excess IAFP Journals to FAO for distribution to developing countries, speaker travel support for travel to the Annual Meeting, the Ivan Parkin Lecture at the Annual Meeting and the John H. Silliker Lecture which is made possible through a contribution from Silliker, Inc.

Currently, the Foundation Committee consists of a very dedicated group of people including Gale Prince, Chairperson; Gary Acuff, Stan Bailey, Zeb Blanton, Roger Cook, Bob Gravani, Peter Hibbard, Bob Marshall, Susan Sumner, Fred Weber, Frank Yiannas, and Don Zink. Wilbur Feagan and Paul Hall serve as advisors to the Committee. This great team of people who are on the Foundation Committee are working hard to come up with new ideas for attracting additional contributions for the Foundation and are making sure that the funds we do have are used and invested wisely.

Many of you will remember the great address (and pep talk!) that Gale Prince gave us last year in Baltimore. You will also remember the professional-looking donation pamphlets that were hung on your hotel door. That effort raised more than $6,000 as a direct result of this unique approach to fundraising. If anyone has creative fundraising ideas you are willing to share, please let us know!

The Foundation Committee is now hard at work finalizing a fantastic promotional video. By the time you read this article, we hope that the video will have been finalized. I think this is a major accomplishment for IAFP and a real achievement. The video will put IAFP on the map from a promotional standpoint. This video will show IAFP in action and will demonstrate how dynamic, innovative and great an organization we are. We are going to be able to use this new video in a multitude of ways. One of the key uses will be to showcase the video when we visit supporting organizations; this will definitely be a huge factor in our favor during our discussions with any organization. After viewing the video, I am sure organizations will better understand how IAFP works towards “Advancing Food Safety Worldwide ® ” and, as a result, they will be very receptive to us.

Support from individuals is also crucial in the growth of the IAFP Foundation. Contributions, big or small, make an impact on the programs supported by the Foundation. We will also be counting on you to act as ambassadors for this video and for the organization. I am sure that you all know one or two key individuals with whom we could make contact as we approach various organizations for donations. Remember, our goal is to reach $1.0 million in the Foundation reserves by the year 2010. This will enable the Foundation to directly support projects that supplement the work of IAFP and our mission.

Besides all the activities the Foundation supports, we are also expanding other Member services right now in a very exciting way. For example, in order to keep up the great quality of the Journal of Food Protection, we engaged a fourth Editor, Dr. Elliot Ryser. At the same time, we instituted an online review process for the Journal, which will speed the time to publication for articles. We also now have the very successful student luncheon, and have expanded the number of student travel scholarships for travel to the Annual Meeting. Last year, we started our symposia series outside of North America and will continue the European Symposium again in 2006. In terms of the scientific program for the Annual Meeting, we are expanding the mechanism to support speaker travel. We want to be able to attract the best speakers in the world so that we can continue to be the premier food safety organization in the world.

News Flash – this just in! We have four new IAFP Sustaining Members! Burger King, Centrus International, The Kroger Co., and Randolph Associates. Welcome to the growing number of Sustaining Members and thanks for your support of IAFP. It is truly appreciated!

Please do not forget to cast your vote for our new Secretary. You should have received your ballots by now. If not, please contact the IAFP office and they will send you one right away. Again this year, we have two great nominees – Dr. Leon Gorris from Unilever in the UK and Ms. Vickie Lewandowski from Kraft. The deadline to return your ballot to the IAFP office is March 17.

As always, I can be reached by E-mail at: jeff_farber@hc-sc.gc.ca and would love to hear from you!

Quote of the month :

“My father used to say, ‘You can spend a lot of time making money. The tough time comes when you have to give it away properly.’ How to give something back, that’s the tough part in life.”

Lee Iacocca

“I absolutely believe in the power of tithing and giving back. My own experience about all the blessings I’ve had in my life is that the more I give away, the more that comes back. That is the way life works, and that is the way energy works.”

Ken Blanchard

Have a great month!