Food Protection Trends - November/December 2024 - 480

COMMITTEE AND PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT GROUP MINUTES
6. Update on future initiative draft proposals:
g. Professional development grant (Gary, Wendy)
viii.
xi. Could have selected webinar recordings on a public channel
(YouTube) to increase publicity of the organization.
Will propose up to 10 awards of $2,000 maximum
each. The award will support travel and registration for
continuing education or professional development to assist
industry professionals that do not have the means of support
(small companies, new graduate, etc.). Could involve travel to
IAFP, another food safety conference, or training courses.
ix. The proposal is finished and has been approved by the
Executive Board. Will be shelved until funds are available.
b. International graduate student research exchange program (Alvin).
iii. Proposal is still in development but will provide assistance with
travel costs for grad students to travel to other universities or
laboratories (training or internships). $1,500 max per award;
number of awards hasn't yet been decided.
iv. There was discussion on the proposed scope and criteria:
1. Training must be within their study program.
2. Student in good standing with their university and current
IAFP Member.
3. Attestation from home and hosting institution to define
scope of training.
4. Summary from student.
iii. After discussion, it was recommended that the program be
considered for funding specific Travel Scholarship winners to
stay an additional week or two to visit/work in a research or
industry lab to gain additional experience.
iv. Alvin, Dane and Gary will continue to work on the proposal to
reflect the proposed scope.
c. JFP Article Processing Charge (APC) grant for authors from
developing economies (Alvin, Gary).
iv. Alvin discussed with Panos regarding JFP publication waivers.
Panos indicated JFP receives about 3-4 waiver requests
each month and that not all qualify for waivers. Authors from
developing countries who satisfy Elsevier's Publish for Life
program continue to enjoy the benefits. Some waiver requests
are for partial waivers which Panos indicated could come from
the Editorial Board's allotted monthly waivers. Panos suggested
the Foundation consider putting the waiver initiative towards
strategically invited submissions that would improve JFP
impact factor. This could be influential to authors invited by the
JFP Editorial Board to publish on timely issues. Alvin and Gary
will continue discussion with Panos and the editors.
e. See New Business (c & d) for two new, potential initiatives.
6. Other business
g. Webinar ideas (Neil Bogart)
viii.
b. Student Involvement Ideas (Laura Strawn and Claire Murphy) to
foster a culture of giving.
iii. Possibly create a match pool for student donations. Make sure
that the match funds provided are above and beyond normal
giving.
4. Neil and Jennifer McIntire would be interested in funding it
the first year.
v. Propose to use gold balls for matches to make the match funds
visible in the donation cylinder.
vi. Look for an item that can be donated to the Student PDG and
allow students can buy (affordable) tickets for a raffle.
vii.
university.
c. Expanding travel scholarship (Joshua)
iv. Consider travel awards for technicians where there are funding
restrictions (government) or just limited funds (justification to
bring them).
v. Joshua will work on the proposal, and we'll add it to the New
Initiatives list.
d. Expanding Awards (Michelle)
v. Work on developing a Latin American award, like the European
Award.
vi. Will talk about it at the next meeting to see if there's interest.
7. IAFP Executive Board recommendations:
h. Consider making webinars open access (attendance and/or
recordings).
9. Gary adjourned meeting at 8:43 am Pacific Time.
Membership Committee
A few years ago, the Foundation moved to support
the webinars to make them no-cost for presenters and IAFP
Member attendees. IAFP doesn't bring in revenue on webinars.
ix. Caliber of the webinar content and attendance has improved/
increased over the years. Neil proposed making the recordings
or webinars more accessible to non-members.
x. Access to webinar recordings is a perk of IAFP membership and
webinars are free for non-members during the month of June.
480 Food Protection Trends November/December
Meeting Called to Order: Sunday, 1:15 p.m., July 15, 2024.
Minutes Recording Secretary: Leon Gorris.
Old Business: The minutes of the last Membership Committee meeting (09
June 2023; virtual meeting) were adopted as written.
New Business: The committee considered the latest membership data
provided by IAFP staff. The discussion focused on sustaining member
numbers and possible initiatives to further increase individual membership
overall and especially increase membership outside of the USA (which
currently is ~75% of total membership). The number of sustaining
members, which typically are commercial entities, has seen a gradual
decline. Members suggested the possibility that also public entities (e.g.,
academic or research institutes; governmental bodies) might benefit from
tailored Sustaining Members schemes. As for individual membership,
the committee applauded the work of the Board to soon launch a tiered
membership and conference cost schemes tailored to the relative income
level in various countries around the globe. The committee assumes this
tiered conference fee approach is implemented also for meetings outside
of the USA. Membership numbers outside the USA may be improved by
raising IAFP brand awareness of students and regional meeting attendees.
Opportunities to increase overall membership numbers and to encourage
consistent membership engagement (to reduce in/out membership
frequently seen currently) were thought to be in recognition of long-term
Consider some sort of student challenge based on
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