Baking&Snack - June 2014 - 108

Biscuits & Crackers with
Southern Hospitality
B&CMA brought together bakers and suppliers to take on formulating, FSMA, onboarding
and more at its Annual Technical Conference, held April 27-30 in Nashville, TN.
Accepting the Chairman's
Award for Safety
Excellence were (from
left) Tom Kehr, Kellogg
Company; Jeffrey Hicks,
Mondelez International;
Virgil Thomas, Kellogg
Company; David Van Laar,
B&CMA; Kelly Lankton,
Kellogg Company; Juan
Carlos Zavalas, Newly
Weds Foods; Otis Thaxton,
ConAgra Foods.

Welcome to Nashville - where your waiter could be the next
country superstar and gravy is almost considered a beverage.
It was also the site for the Biscuit & Cracker Manufacturers'
Association (B&CMA)'s 89th Annual Technical Conference.
With nearly 300 attendees, the show welcomed 65
newcomers at the First Year Breakfast. "Your companies invested in you and believed in you to send you
here," noted David Van Laar, vice-chairman, Oak State
Products, Winona, IL, and B&CMA chairman, in his
opening remarks. "I still can't believe that 30-some years
ago I watched people go to the B&CMA conference. It
was a sacred thing, and the buzz throughout the plant
was, 'What lucky person is going this year?' And I'd hope
someday it would be me. Be careful what you wish for ...
you might wind up on this stage."
Problem-solving was a key component at this year's
conference, with breakout sessions ranging from preparing both formulators and operators for looming
regulations under the Food Safety Modernization Act to
bridging generational gaps and onboarding. An "Ask the
Experts" panel provided troubleshooting and sparked
idea-sharing throughout the audience.
The conference also brought together bakers and suppliers, not only through breakout sessions and the table
top exhibition but also through social events including a golf tournament, welcome reception and dinner

108 Baking & Snack June 2014 / www.bakingandsnack.com

and dancing at one of Nashville's most popular venues.
Mr. Van Laar thanked the allied members for playing
a role in getting the two sides of the industry together
and identified suppliers as "the problem solvers" of the
industry. "Without the allied committee, we'd just be a
bunch of bakers sitting around looking at each other,
and that's not the most exciting way to spend three days,
even in Nashville," Mr. Van Laar said.
During the general session, B&CMA recognized
member bakeries and individuals, presenting the
Vander Heide Award to Kathleen Clark, PhD, director of
continuous improvement, ConAgra Foods, Omaha, NE.
The award is the association's highest honor, given to the
person graduating top of the class in the previous year's
correspondence course. The association also bestowed
the Chairman's Award for Safety Excellence to member
bakeries with the best overall safety record and DART
incidence rates according to bakery size.
B&CMA President Stacey Sharpless announced she
will soon conclude her 17-year career with the association. To ensure a smooth transition, the group recently
formed a committee to hire a new president. Bill Quigg,
president of Richmond Baking Co., Richmond, IN,
chairs the search committee. Those interested can visit
www.thebcma.org/association-president-job-position for
more information.

http://www.thebcma.org/association-president-job-position http://www.bakingandsnack.com

Baking&Snack - June 2014

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