by Jarka Hinksman, Chair of the South East Branch
Introduction
As you all may know we no longer have to adhere to strict AGM rules but I hope this annual meeting can continue to be a reflection on the past year and be a reminder of how active and hardworking this branch is and how lucky it is to boast an amazing pool of professionals and students on our committee.
First of all, many thanks to my predecessor, Sue Dix, who left the committee in a neat order and the calendar of events packed full. The culmination of her legacy is actually our lecture on 16.11. with cca 100 attendees booked. We have three speakers presenting and debating the hottest food and nutrition topics as proposed by students.
Many thanks to the committee members for their contributions, enthusiasm and support. My special thanks go to Mark Woolfe, our new Secretary, who took on this post with ease and is a great person to rely on, and, I must not forget our immensely pro-active student members Vic Chiang and Kiu Sum.
We bid farewell to Jane Emery, after 34 years at the IFST. We congratulated Alex Kent, who was awarded the IFST’s Honorary Fellowship award and Daniel Clarke, a student from University of Leeds, who won the SE branch’s Ralph Blanchfield Award for the second time running.
Our past year has been successful, we organised 11 events encompassing lectures, technical visits and networking opportunities attended by cca 300 people. We further supported and engaged in 3 externally organised events. We strengthened our links with a number of universities in our region. This year in particular, the committee attracted many new members thanks to our new marketing and engagement channels. We reviewed our current membership and opened up to new ways of working.
Branch Annual Meeting 2015
On Thursday 19 of November the branch met for its annual AGM at the University of West London. This was followed by a fascinating presentation on 'Aviation Food Safety' given by Erica Sheward. Afterwards we all networked over a delicious buffet prepared by the university.
Committee Meetings 2015/6
We have held 6 committee meetings. With one exception, they were all hosted by universities. The maximum length of the committee meetings was 2 hours. For the January committee David Boniface kindly prepared a report charting committee attendance over the past 3 years. This enabled us to review our membership and members’ involvement. We noted that Richard Benson is the most avid attendee. The July meeting was followed by a Summer Social, the October meeting was preceded by a lecture. Today we had a micro meeting attended by Erin Taylor, responsible for the IFST membership.
Marketing and Engagement
- Personalized Welcome Letter from the branch
We created a personalized Welcome Letter that the IFST membership manager sends out to all new members in our region. This might encourage new members to attend the events and hopefully get involved in the committee as well. It is too early to assess the letter’s efficacy this early and the IFST HQ is monitoring its progress.
- Attendee list
Our attendee list form now includes a box asking people if they would like to be involved in the work of the committee. We put it in action on the day of our Summer Social, this attracted 4 new professionals joining to our committee.
- Website
Andrea Perodi has trained Vic Chiang to help with maintaining our branch’s web pages where we advertise forthcoming events and report on past events. After each event it is now customary to write a report and include pictures wherever possible. Unfortunately, we do not have full access to the IFST website as, for example, those reports involving pictures have to be uploaded by the HQ staff so the publishing is not as smooth, timely or consistently accurate.
- Event Publicity Form
We designed an Event Publicity Form that helps us and the IFST office advertise our events in a more consistent way. The current Event Check list is still in place though it may be updated thanks to new additions created by tonight’s event that has attracted almost 100 attendees.
- Dropbox
Where attendee emails have been collected, with their consent, and, photos have been taken, we distribute a Dropbox link where the photos are stored for a personal download. This allows further personalized contact with those who may not necessarily be involved in our committee work but may be so over time.
Events
a) Networking Socials
- Christmas Event 9th December Museum of Brands 9.12.16
Almost 20 members saw the museum’s core collection, which some described as a trip down the memory lane. We then had a delicious meal washed down with a selection of craft beers and wine at the Union Tavern.
- Summer Social at The Queen’s Head, 7.7.2016
It was preceded by a committee meeting, which was attended by the new IFST Operations Director Andrew Gardner as well as Jon Poole, the Director of the Institute. We then socialized and networked with several new members that this event attracted.
- Chelsea Physic Garden, 13.9.2016
This was a guided tour of this garden specializing in the cultivation of medicinal herbs and plants.6b) Technical Visits 2016
- Writtle College visit to the their Postharvest Technology Unit, 6.4.2016
Cancelled as the date could not have been secured early enough so members did not have enough notice.
- Tate & Lyle Sugar Refinery in East London, 11.5.2016
Quality manager Katie Carter and several members of staff of this largest refinery in Europe gave a group of 16 an overview of sugar refining and then took us around the facilities, including a visit to their packaging lines and NPD lab.
- HR Wallingford, 16.6.2016
Our group of 8 was hosted by this world-leading water management facility’s director, Andrew Brown with the visit including a talk on climate change; water cycle studies; rainwater licensing; water resources completed by a guided tour.
- Tutored Beer Tasting Event at the Institute of Brewing and Distilling, 5.7.2016
Our tutor, Nigel Sadler, the UK's first accredited Beer Sommelier, gave a detailed presentation about the brewing process followed by a tasting of a series of beers and ales in three ‘flights’ completed by a buffet. Attendees: 17
- Artisan du Chocolat, 20.7.2016
Owen Evans secured a technical visit to this medium sized high-end artisanal chocolate manufacturer he works with. 12 attendees were shown all the processes in the factory, including conch/refining, blending, tempering, spinning, enrobing, panning & spraying.
c) Student Events
- University of Surrey, 25.2.2016
6 members of the committee had a great welcome at Surrey University in Guildford where they joined staff and students for an evening meeting and presentations. Students presented on their industrial placement time at Sainsbury’s, Leatherhead Food Research, General Mills and Danone and final year food innovation projects, centred on the preparation of healthier alternatives to some staples of the UK diet. It was a resounding success with the University wishing to repeat this format next year. The committee contributed £300 for the catering. Attendees: 30+
- The University of Reading Food Science Society, 17.10.2016
Our tradition to work with this university continued this year again. It included Presentations of Reading Food Science and Technology Student’s Industrial Placement Experiences and plus a networking buffet afterwards. Our branch sponsored the buffet to the tune of £300 too.
- Nuts about Fairtrade Lecture, London Southbank, 26.10.2016
Well over 60 attended this presentation by a globetrotter Dan Binks from Liberation Foods CIC. The talk included an introduction to Fair Trade and Dan’s current work with peanut farmers in Latin America. The event started off with a presentation by the IFST Young Ambassadors, Anna Monaghan and Daniel Clarke explaining the work of the IFST and its initiates such as FoodStart.
Engaging Young Talent
- The IFST Young Ambassador Awards
You might be familiar with his name since he was a winner last year - Daniel Clarke from University of Leeds won the Ralph Blanchfield Award once more. Our members looked after him at the IFST conference and dinner on 20 April. Daniel is currently down south, for his industrial year at University of Reading so he is actively engaged with our branch now.
- STEM at Work, 7.7.2016
Owen Evans represented our branch as a business volunteer at an interactive event for Year 7 school kids that aimed at students to gain a better understanding of different job roles and key skills required within the science and engineering sectors. As Owen reported, the event was highly successful and was a good opportunity to engage with 150 13yr old pupils about food science and raise awareness of the food industry. Owen recommended that it may be worth for us to link with more with schools on events like this.
- Westminster University Speed Networking Event, 16.12.2015
The Westminster University Nutrition Society, whose chair is our committee student member Kiu Sum, invited us to a Speed Networking Event that gave students the opportunity to gain experiences by meeting and learning from others working the field.
- Linking Food & Nutrition students from London Unis with the IFST
Working with our present pool of universities inspired our student committee member Vic Chiang to set up a network meeting amongst university students. He is contacting all universities in our region with food and nutrition courses with the hope to be linked up with students. Getting through is trickier than anticipated so if any one of you has any personal links please do let us know.
In Conclusion
Many thanks to all of you who are so actively engaged in the work of the committee. It has been a very productive and successful year indeed. Our work does not stop here though so please contact us with your comments and suggestions on:seifstbranch@gmail.com
by Jarka Hinksman, Chair of the South East Branch