Food Protection Trends - January/February 2021 - 6

COMMENTARY
FROM YOUR PRESIDENT

Roger Cook

What is tiny, blue and disproportionately disturbing? More on that later.
Well we have done it folks. IAFP 2020 in
the shortest of time transformed from the
world's best live to the world's best virtual
food protection meeting, with only the loss
of the lunches and banquet dining experiences. Stan expertly captured the social side of
the meeting - well done that man!!
I cannot say enough or think of a means to adequately celebrate the
miracles that David and the IAFP office team performed to make the
conference work and yet, still do their day jobs.
I have always been in awe at how beautifully oiled the machinery was
that gave us the Annual Meeting. But to throw away the operating manual,
in fact rip out the engine, erase all institutional knowledge and demand a
completely new propulsion system would have had most run a mile.
Not so this team. They dug in, planned, evaluated, organized, cajoled,
asked lots of questions, took advice, got frustrated at times, and I suspect
perhaps cried, but delivered a great experience.
Yes, not perfect but then the live conferences weren't perfect either.
Remember not getting into the hotel you wanted, flight delayed or cancelled,
person before you got the last taxi, and there wasn't an electric kettle in your
hotel room to boil the water for the cup of tea you desperately needed or no
real milk? Arghhh!!! I guess virtual conferences aren't that bad.
Which brings me back to the original question. I have, over the course of
what is now a long career, had the pleasure to appear on pre-recorded and live

FROM YOUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Each time I sit down to write a column for
Food Protection Trends, I look back at what I
wrote in the last issue and the issue from one
year ago. Interestingly, I found from January
of 2020 that I had begun with the " rejection
of expertise " issue created by so many new
" experts " that we have in the information age.
I went on to encourage everyone to work to
" establish fact-based science as a platform to
build upon " for the future. Needless to say, the year of 2020 may go down as
the year we totally ignored science related to COVID-19 as is evidenced by
more than 1.5 million deaths in the world and more than 275,000 in the USA.
We can do better.
In this issue, we present the financial results for the fiscal year ended on
August 31, 2020. An abbreviated financial report is shown on page 175. The
Statement of Activity for IAFP's General Fund shows revenues of $1.66
million and expense of $2.2 million with a negative excess of $569,000 for the
year's activities. Thus, our year-end Net Assets (at August 31, 2020) in the
General Fund were roughly $2,877 million. It should be noted that within
the fiscal year, we did not have our typical Annual Meeting " contribution " to
the Association's operating budget and of course, we did not have the related
expenses. Nonetheless, normally the Annual Meeting adds between $500,000

6

Food Protection Trends January/February

television several times in front of New Zealand's national Rottweiler current
affairs frontspersons. No problems, just chat away as if answering questions at
a conference, smiling, gesticulating, scanning the environment - easy.
But doing so to that tiny blue dot at the top of my laptop screen, the
camera, was not so easy; accidentally looking away into indeterminate
places, not being able to throw my hands around, trying not to be seen
reading my notes because of aged-related speech memory loss - it was
extremely terrifying and difficult, and the results which all of you have seen,
was for me sub-optimal.
So a huge cheer goes out to all of you that perhaps hesitantly, and with
trepidation, sat in front of your own blue dots and recorded your scientific
delights for all to share the world over. Without you IAFP 2020 would not
have been the success it was. Chocolate fish to you all!
Lastly, I have had the privilege of perusing all of your conference survey
responses and am really disappointed with the most common complaint.
Fear thee not because I too complained to the Board about this - the
inability to enjoy the company of my peers, my dearest friends, all of you,
my family. Absence certainly made my heart grow fonder.
The following comment rang so true " The introduction for the Ivan
Parkin Lecture described how the introducer had met the speaker when
they attended the same symposium at an IAFP meeting years previously,
and how they had been professional colleagues ever since, and those sorts
of meetings just weren't happening. " My pledge to all our students, young
professionals and first attendees - hang in there and when we next get to
meet we will all open our arms and welcome you to the IAFP family.

David W. Tharp
and $800,000 to our operating budget. Even with the loss incurred, the
Association remains in a very sound financial position.
The year of 2020 has surely been unusual for IAFP. As Roger described,
we had to postpone our Annual Meeting to October and then convert it to a
virtual meeting. Normally we participate in 3 to 5 meetings outside of North
America, but this year there were none! The China and Dubai meetings took
place in November virtually. In China, they did have some audience members
attending in-person to make it a hybrid meeting. Also in November, the
INOFOOD and IAFP's Latin America Symposium on Food Safety took place
in Santiago, Chile. In January 2021, the Asia Pacific Symposium on Food
Safety will be held with a small audience in Hong Kong and virtually. We have
hopes that by 2022, IAFP will be able to resume its international involvement.
The IAFP Foundation added $390,000 to its net assets bringing the
year-end total to $2.45 million. The investment portfolio did very well while
we only spent out $13,000 during the year. This was due to not holding the
Annual Meeting where the bulk of Foundation spending occurs to support
Student Travel Scholarships and other Travel Awards. In Fiscal Year 2021, it
is expected that we will have double the travel expense spend out assuming
IAFP 2021 takes place as an in-person meeting.
We hope that you and your family members are keeping safe and healthy
during these stressful times. As January has now arrived, we will look to 2021 for
rebuilding and working our way back to a more normal life. Best wishes to you,
your family and your colleagues for a Happy, Successful and Healthy 2021!
Food Protection Trends - January/February 2021

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