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Food Protection Trends COMMENTARY from the Executive Director “This year, all
of our ballots for the Secretary
election will be cast via the Internet
for the first time in Association history ” February is a very busy month for IAFP. The Secretary election is now begun; our Awards nominations are due just past the end of this month, and the Program Committee meets in mid-February along with the Executive Board. All of this in addition to continuing the planning for three major meet- ings in 2008! Those meetings include our Latin American and our European Symposia on Food Safety and our 95th Annual Meeting (IAFP 2008). We should spend a little time revie wing and updating each of these projects and events. First off, let’s discuss the Secretary election. By now, you should have received an E-mail notification regarding your vote for the next IAFP Secretary. This year, all of our ballots for the Secretary election will be cast via the Internet for the first time in Association history. You may recall that the IAFP Constitution and Bylaws were amended in 2006 to allow for an electronic election and now it is time to put the vote into action. It is very simple to vote in the IAFP Secretary election. Just click on the link provided in your E-mail or visit the IAFP Web site for the link from our home page. Once on the voting Web site, you need to enter your user identification and the unique password provided in the E-mail sent to you in order to vote. If for some reason you didn’t receive the E-mail, or even discarded it unknowingly, you may call directly to the voting center to obtain your identification number, thus allowing you to vote. Our office will not have access to the unique passwords, so your call for help will need to be placed to the voting center. This keeps the voting activity at “arms-length” from the IAFP Executive Board and staff. We want you to be comfortable knowing that the IAFP election process is tamper proof! While talking about the election, it would be proper to recognize our two candidates this year. They are Emilio Esteban from USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Services in Alameda, California and Isabel Walls from USDA’s Foreign Agri-cultural Service in Washington, D.C. We truly appreciate the willingness of both Isabel and Emilio to be considered for service on the IAFP Executive Board. I want to also mention the Awards nominations for 2008 are due to the IAFP office by Tuesday, March 4. There is still plenty of time to nominate a deserving colleague for an IAFP Award. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by – prepare a nomination today! The list of Awards is shown on page 135 of this issue and the criteria for each nomination is available at the IAFP Web site from our Home page and the Annual Meeting page. We look forward to receiving your nomination! The Pro gram Committee will meet in Columbus to review all submitted technical abstracts and decide which are worthy of including in this year’s program. In addition, a final review of submitted symposia and workshop ideas takes place. By the time the Committee completes their work, the program for IAFP 2008 is ready to take shape! By the end of March, program details will be posted on the IAFP Web site for your review. The IAFP Executive Board also meets in Columbus in February to discuss the business of the Association. This also allows a time for the Board to see the convention site and become familiar with the layout for our events next summer. Columbus will surprise most of our attendees with the number of excellent restaurants and night spots available for entertainment. All of it very close to the convention site! We are looking forward toIAFP 2008 and our visit to Columbus.I can tell you that the Ohio Local Arrangements Committee is planning a great time for everyone who attends IAFP 2008! One change you will notice as you sign up for Annual Meeting this year is in our online registration system. With the growth we have experienced over the past three or four years, we now have a need for a more advanced registration system. After you haveregistered, the new system will allow you to plan your schedule for IAFP 2008 and will also allow you to schedule appointments with exhibitors! We are looking forward to implementing this system and hope you will enjoy using it this year. Please let us know if you like it or if you see areas for improvement. We expect there may be some growing pains this year, but also expect that you will like the new system! As I said in the beginning, it is a busy time for IAFP. Our efforts are pulled in many ways, but all are good. We enjoy moving the projects forward for our Members and feel good about the work we do. Working for the leading food safety organization in the world keeps our efforts focused on being the very best for you!
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