Food Protection Trends - May 2010 - 264

from your president
reetings to All! Spring has certainly sprung here in Illinois! In fact, I am sitting outside as I write this column, enjoying the first 70+ degree day we have had since September. The arrival of spring brings a lot of changes, new things and new events. My family and I recently attended a spring festival at the boys’ school. One of the organized events was “The Cake Walk.” The premise of the game is the same as musical chairs; there is a circle of spots, with one spot less than the number of walkers. When the music starts, the children walk around in a circle; when the music stops everyone stops, hopefully on a spot. The child without a spot to stand on is out of the game. The game continues until there is one child left, the winner of a sugary sweet cake! As you can imagine, with a prize like that on the line all of the children were desperate to be the last standing. As the game neared the end there was a lot of fast walking, pushing, a little shoving and the like going on. In the end, neither of my boys won a cake but walked away with a few bruises to show for their efforts! As I watched this event it reminded me a lot of the IAFP Silent Auction held each year at the Annual Meeting. More than once I’ve walked away empty handed with only bruises to show for my efforts! There really is nothing “silent” about the event and it is more like a sporting event than an auction. I truly look forward to the Silent Auction every year, the items and the mad rush as the clock winds down. The last 15 seconds are analogous to only one spot being left in the cake walk event! For IAFP the arrival of spring brings about an abundance of new news! The IAFP staff recently said tearful goodbyes to two coworkers; Lani McDonald and Tamara Ford. Both Lani and Tamara have left IAFP for moves out-of-state to pursue other opportunities. At the same time, the staff has welcomed two new people to the

“vickie's view”

By VICKIE LEWANDOWSKI
PRESIDENT

“Your participation and support of the Foundation will enable IAFP to continue to achieve its Mission”

your congratulations to him! At this time we also extend a huge thank you to Maria Teresa Destro for her commitment to our Association as exemplified by her willingness to be a candidate in the election. I would also like to thank all of our committed members who took the time to participate in the election by voting! Spring also reveals the result of the efforts of many of our members’ hard work, those who took the time to coordinate award nominations, those who wrote letters of support for a nominee and those who served as jurors, on award committees. I am pleased to be able to report that this year we had a nomination for every award! Thanks to all of you who recognized your colleagues. The award winners will be announced soon. Each spring we also have the honor of awarding Student Travel Scholarships. Please join us in congratulating these scholarship recipients: • • • • • Abel Atukwase, Makerere University, Uganda Mary Pia Cuervo, Texas A&M, USA Vania Ferreira, Portuguese Catholic University, Portugal Clyde Manuel, Colorado State University, USA Csaba Nemeth, University of Budapest, Hungary Anh Linh Nguyen, University of New South Wales, Australia Iryna Sybirtseva, North Carolina State University, USA Duygu Tosun, Ege University, Turkey

IAFP office; Susan Smith and Terri Haffner. Susan is replacing Lani and is already hard at work supporting the affiliate needs. Terri has moved into Tamara’s position and has jumped in right where Tamara left off in organizing the European Symposium happening June 2010 in Dublin as well as working non-stop on the Annual Meeting to be held August 2010 in Anaheim. We wish Tamara and Lani the best and enthusiastically welcome Susan and Terri! With spring comes the Secretary election results. Don Schaffner is our new incoming Secretary; please extend

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The Student Travel Scholarships are funded from the IAFP Foundation. The Foundation also supports the Ivan Parkin Lecture, the John H. Silliker Lecture, Annual Meeting speaker travel support, the Developing Scientist Competition and shipment of JFP and FPT journals to developing countries through FAO. The Foundation is

264 FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS | MAY 2010

Food Protection Trends - May 2010

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