Food Protection Trends - August 2008 - (Page 566)

“COMMENTARY” from the executive director any times we are asked in the months leading up to Annual Meeting, “How can we get someone from our company on this year’s program?” Because of the way our meeting is structured with scientific presentations, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to find your way onto the program in the four to six months prior to the IAFP Annual Meeting. This is by design though. This month, I want to review how you can work your way onto the IAFP Annual Meeting program. There are two “styles” of presentations taking place at our conference; symposia and technical presentations. I will discuss each of these separately since they are developed, reviewed and approved for presentation under two very different systems. First, we will look at symposia. Under this heading, there are regular symposia covering three hours (normally, six 30-minute presentations), there are short sessions extending one and a half hours or two hours and there are roundtables, normally lasting either one and a half hours or two hours. Most often, a symposium is developed through one of our Professional Development Groups (PDGs) that meet at Annual Meeting. PDGs are groups of Members formed around a topic of interest (dairy, applied methods, meat and poultry, retail food safety and quality, etc.) who come together to discuss their specific topic in greater detail, face-to-face. Some PDGs communicate throughout the year and others do not. It is fairly dependant upon the chairperson or other active M By DAVID W.THARP, CAE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR “You can work your way onto the IAFP Annual Meeting program” (or not so active) members. IAFP does not require a certain number of communications or messages to be sent per year, but we do encourage PDG chairpersons to keep in contact with their members. It is helpful to have some communication take place prior to the PDG meeting at Annual Meeting so the PDG members have an idea of what topics are important to discuss and what topics may make a good symposium for the next Annual Meeting. Now, back to the PDG meetings at Annual Meeting. So, as previously stated, many of our symposia are developed by our PDGs. If you have an area of interest and expertise in that area; to become a part of the symposium covering that topic, it helps if you are “in the room” when the symposium is being developed! This would be the number one way to be included in a symposium (get actively involved with one or more PDG). Symposia can be developed by an individual and submitted for consideration, but the majority of our symposia do come from the PDG system. The due date for symposium proposals is on Tuesday of the Annual Meeting. This is a preliminary, but required step to final acceptance (in Februar y). Usually, there are between 50 and 60 symposia submitted for consideration. The Program Committee reviews each submission carefully considering the merits of each, but they can only tentatively accept between 24 and 30 for further development. The organizer typically will receive instructions from the Program Committee on what to do to strengthen their proposal between Annual Meeting and the February meeting of the Program Committee. Many times, proposed symposia carry a common theme and two or more may be asked to combine to form an even stronger session. Let’s now shift to technical presentations. For technical papers presented at Annual Meeting, authors must submit an abstract following guidelines set by the Program Committee. These instructions are posted on the IAFP Web site for easy access. Abstracts 566 FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS | AUGUST 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Food Protection Trends - August 2008

Food Protection Trends - August 2008 Contents Sustaining Members Lone Star Perspective from Your President Commentary from the Executive Director Hand Hygiene in the Food Industry: Resolving an Enigma? Food Safety Awareness: Concerns, Practices, and Openness to Change of College Students with Health and Non-Health Majors Highlights from the Brazil International Food Safety Conference Audiovisual Library Listing Audiovisual Library Order Form New Members Updates News Industry Products Coming Events Advertising Index Journal of Food Protection� Table of Contents Booklet Order Form Membership Application

Food Protection Trends - August 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.