What We Have Achieved to Date

By John Kinsella, CMC, CCE, WGMC, AAC

Since taking office, your board of directors has accomplished many things that will affect the growth of ACF. The previous board proposed the following: Set up a task force to develop a strategic plan for the next six years; create continuity for Team USA; and pass on a strong financial plan to the new board. As a board, we were able to hit the floor running and set in motion a committee and task-force structure to guide us through the next four years.

But the best-made plans are sometimes stymied by other events. Several of our chapters were devastated by hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma-- three very angry ladies. When we need our members to step up to the plate, however, we are blessed with some of the finest talent in the world. The Katrina task force created a working program to assist our members, and more than $130,000 has been raised. Members from all over the United States provided money, jobs, clothes and tools for our displaced members. And no member lost his or her membership; we paid for those who were deprived of a salary. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who gave in so many ways to help our members.

We are starting to review our membership structure, and we will be asking you to participate in focus groups for both the strategic plan and membership. These will be your plans and your expectations of where we will go in the future. Did you know that 47% of our active members are over 45, and will retire within 20 years; 1% of our members are over 65; and 19% are junior members? As we say in business, we have a problem with a diminishing return on our human capital.

The cost of chapter membership must be addressed, or it will be pointless for a member to transfer from one chapter to another. We also need to review our dues, and look to other groups to evaluate why we charge our lowest-income members the same dues as those of us who are more fortunate. If we retain our graduating members and get them certified, we will have a retention rate beyond belief as long as their dues reflect their income. It's quite simple: More members at a reasonable cost will reflect growth.

We recruit members from clubs, fine dining, hotels, educational institutions and retirement communities--3% of all food-preparation professionals, or about 150,000 people. We need to start recruiting from the casual-dining segment--24% of all food-preparation professionals, or about 2 million people employed by some of the largest corporations in the world. We must go after these potential members with dynamic programs and career-building strategies to recruit and keep them.

I have asked your vice presidents to recruit 12 members per chapter to enable us to put in place a gamut of programs to assist our expansion. I am also asking all our educators to form student clubs to educate each student of our values and our purpose. When I became your president, I promised you that we would think out of the box, and open our doors to all culinarians at whatever level they enter our federation.

Finally, our future will depend on how we move forward as a team. ACF is only as strong as its members, and as members, we must become the future of our industry, not its past.

Good cooking to you.