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Food Protection Trends COMMENTARY from the Executive Director “ IAFP will always be on the lookout
for new ideas, ways to adjust to
what our Members need and want” Look at how IAFP grows! Not too long ago, we announced that IAFP Member dues were being reduced to a base level of $50 per year. By making this substantial change, we sent a message to IAFP Members that we felt it was important to keep you involved with the world’s leading food safety organization! We also wanted this message to carry across all borders, to resonate with all nationalities from every corner of our world. To allow access to being an IAFP Member for the same price no matter where you live, no matter who you are; to make participation in IAFP affordab le for everyone! Well, this magic formula is working very well. Without promotion or advertising, just by word of mouth, our Membership has increased by 7%. Now ponder, what is possible if we actually promoted this bargain? Well, we are about to find out! IAFP has accumulated a substantial amount of contact information for food safety professionals in our database over the years. Some of our information comes from attendance by non-members at IAFP Annual Meetings and sponsored symposia, others from orders received and still more from those Members who have not renewed their Membership in past years. At any rate, we have designed a series of mailings to send to those in our database who are not Members. If just 10% respond by becoming Members, we could increase our active Membership list by another 14%! Wouldn’t this be fantastic? We are sharing this information because we need your help! When your colleagues ask you if you know about IAFP, you can reply with an enthusiastic, YES! When they ask you what you get from IAFP, you can reply with, INFORMATION! That list of information includes, but is not limited to: 1. The latest information onprotecting the food supply. 2. Contacts with leading foodsafety authorities. 3. Cutting-edge research published in the Journal of Food Protection . 4. Applied articles based onsound science from Food Protection Trends . 5. Short, concise, current information reported in the IAFP Report . 6. Face-to-face discussion and interaction at IAFPAnnual Meetings. 7. Knowing you are a part of an Association providing leading food safety information to a worldwide audience. As I said, this is not an all inclusive list by any means, but it provides a tip of the many things that IAFP is known for in the food protection community. So, if your colleagues begin to receive our mailings, encourage them to join IAFP so they can become a part of the Association that “provides food safety professionals world-wide with a forum to exchange information on protecting the food supply.” They will be glad you encouraged them to joinand you will feel good about helping your colleagues grow their knowledge and also grow professionally. Even if your colleagues do not receive our mailing, you can encourage their participation and involvement in IAFP! It has been explained before, but when IAFP changed our dues structure it was done to allow our Members to choose the information they wanted without being forced to receive journals they did not want or need. Under the current system, Members may choose to receive print copies of either FPT or JFP. They may choose to receive JFP Online and soon will be able to choose FPT in a full-copy, Online version. So, the options for Members will increase in the near future. As we continue to progress, IAFP will always be on the lookout for new ideas, ways to adjust to what our Members need and want, and for new opportunities to bring together food safety professionals in our efforts to continue “Advancing Food Safety Worldwide.” Please join with us and do your part to encourage others to become involved with IAFP!
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