[avatar user=”janemcewen” size=”160″ align=”left”]Jane McEwen
Executive Director of the International Packaged Ice Association[/avatar]
The winter/spring IPIA Board meeting was held this past February at the Hyatt Huntington Beach Resort in California where everyone got to see and enjoy first hand this lovely resort on the Pacific ocean, host site for out upcoming Centennial convention. As appropriate, the resort is elegantly themed in the ‘surf’ culture as it is in the heart of Surf City USA, home of the US Open Surfing Championship every summer. Interesting that Santa Catalina Island visible from the beach is what creates the consistent waves, albeit not the biggest in the world, to come on shore in Huntington Beach. The island serviced by ferry, makes a great pre or post day trip, something to consider while at the resort for our Centennial this coming November 14-18.
Now back to the Board meeting, with a strong showing as is typical for our enthusiastic Board and Committee members, the 2 day meetings presided over by Chairman Dann Ades were quite productive. PIQCS/FSMA initiatives were a dominant part of the agenda and discussion, understandably so. We continue to monitor as closely as possible, the FSMA inspection trends. You can help, by communicating to us any inspection experiences that may occur by the FDA or your state. Be sure to catch up on more PIQCS news by reading Committee chair Dave Bryant’s article in this section and Chris Dunn’s recommended questions to ponder relative to conducting your FSMA hazard analysis. It will get you thinking. It was also approved to hold another PCQI training class in Hartford, CT in late March. Other agenda items included Public Affairs updates and the news that we will be back on the Hill this coming September. It has been a few years since we have delivered our message of consistent standards for all ice producers to the Hill, so it will be high time during our Board/Committee meeting September 24-27th at the Capitol Hill Club in DC, a block from our hotel, the Capitol Hill Hotel. The Plant Operations committee chaired by Jeff Messerschmitt is busy researching and reporting on topics important to our members’ operations. The Marketing committee chaired by Jeff Tyler has been quite involved in executing an Ad campaign with Convenience Store Petroleum, social media activity, video production reach-out and the total re-design of packagedice.com and .org is in the works. The Membership committee chaired by Sean Odom is focused on not only on membership recruitment, but assisting our current Applicants with their needs in working towards accreditation. The committee appreciates those members who take their time to assist applicants. Associate report by Chair Don Hutton covered the activities of the FSMA Supplier Committee that Don was instrumental in founding as well as much overall discussion and planning for the Centennial convention and Trade Show. Be sure to visit the committee articles for more detail.
Please be sure to visit our Centennial convention section in this issue. We’ve been focused on planning details for months and as you will see, we are just about there. What you really can’t see, but will see this coming November is we are ‘pulling out all the stops’ for this, the IPIA Centennial experience. Registration will open July 5th.
Lastly, so grateful for our volunteering Board and Committee members as their efforts keep the Association on solid footing with our members’ best interests at heart. Thank them for their service.
Wishing you all the best this high summer season!