Ringing in the New Year With a Vision of the Future

By Michael Ty, CEC, AAC

As we head down the homestretch of my first term of office, I would like to reflect on some accomplishments and how we will proceed in the future.

It is my belief that one of the most important aspects of a successful organization is to listen not only to members, but to industry individuals. Our members, colleagues and friends are the lifeline of our profession, and although we may not always agree, we do take the time to listen.

With listening comes inclusivity and transparency. We have made major strides to empower our members to be part of the decision-making process, as well as to feel a sincere sense of ownership in our organization. With the addition of various committees and task forces that have worked diligently over the past 14-plus months, we have made great progress in involving our members. In addition, we have had tremendous success in our regional conferences and national convention with local membership involvement.

It has been a delight to see that members have embraced our federation. We experienced an overwhelming participation this year in awards and competitions, 186 applications in addition to student teams. This shows that we have been successful in building confidence and trust.

Michael Ty and Jean-Pierre Marechal, executive chef of Savannah Red at the Charlotte Marriott City Center and a member of ACF Inc. Charlotte Chapter, attend the Cut to the Core culinary competition, featuring teams of hospital foodservice providers, at Johnson & Wales University, Charlotte, in October.

I stated that this administration would be transparent, and I believe we have accomplished this by providing you with monthly board minutes and financial documents to better understand how our federation operates. Also, we have provided webinars on the 2011 budget process, as well as on parliamentary procedure and proposed bylaws changes.

My goal on taking office was to operate ACF as a business, and we have made that big turn in operating us more in tune with corporate America. My next task was to make us fiducially responsible to the members, and we made the following decisions:

• We are consistent with travel/reimbursement policies, regardless of who travels.
• We had a wage and hiring freeze at the national office. In addition, we reduced payroll by $250,000.
• The board of directors decided initially not to support ACF Culinary Team USA, but after discussion with the team’s manager, we worked to approve a much more palatable team budget of less than $400,000 that was fully funded by sponsorships and donations. I am proud to say that ACF Culinary Team USA is ACF’s team.
• We produce a digital edition of The National Culinary Review along with a limited print version, and issue Sizzle in digital format only. In addition to reducing our carbon footprint, we have saved more than $181,000, to date.

In my first full year as your president, we took our federation from a deficit and turned it completely around by almost 500%, starting us back on the road of financial success. Almost every department has generated a profit, and we will continue to move in that direction.

Knut Apitz, CEC, CCE, AAC, third from left, is congratulated on his ACF President’s Medallion and ACF Chefs of Milwaukee Lifetime Achievement award at the chapter’s award dinner in October by, left to right: Michael Ty; David Davidson, CEC, AAC; Tom Surwillo, CEC, CCE, chapter president; and Greg Wozniak, CEC, AAC, and Mic Pietrykowski, CCC, who received ACF President’s Coins.

Membership value has been another area of concern over the years; we continued to increase dues while providing less value to members. We have reached some milestones and are looking at more ways to provide value for your membership. One way was to reduce registration fees for regional conferences and the national convention, a move that met with success. We also continued to provide exceptional educational opportunities and more food events at these meetings.

We are looking at restructuring our national and property memberships to be more in line with our chapters. It is my hope that the board of directors will approve a dues structure for both these membership categories to include a universal chapter dues fee that will be rebated back to chapters.

I have reinvigorated dormant committees that will perform well as we go down the homestretch. They should add value through additional membership benefits and possibly a retirement program when we determine the criteria for participation.

Last, but not least, the board is working on a strategic plan to ensure stability from administration to administration. It will be the sitting board’s responsibility to maintain the vision for the federation’s growth, and the board of governors’ responsibility to assure that the board fulfills its objectives. In addition, we have appointed one at-large board member, Catherine Mullarkey, an attorney in New York, and will select a second in the near future.

Under my leadership, we will continue to build on what we have developed over the past year and a half and strengthen our position in the food industry. We value your input on how we can make this federation a household name.

Overall, ACF has and will continue to grow our accreditation programs, certifi cation and events. We initiated a Sponsors Advisory Council that will help us build relationships with our industry partners, and we will continue to increase our family of sponsors to assist us in our goals for the years to come.

Thank you for allowing me this opportunity. I look forward to serving you in the future.

I wish you a happy New Year.