Chair's Message

Brian Giannini

The Cactus IFT Section is challenged to grow our section in Arizona and deliver great educational networking meetings in 2011. We are off to a great start as you can see by this newsletter and the commitment and dedication we have from our officers and committee chairs.
We have expanded our committee chairs this year to include the following committees; a newsletter chair, a student chair, and a programs chair. This will allow us to focus on specific tasks to help grow our section and involve more members to contribute and grow within the section. If you would like to become more involved we would welcome your support.

There are several food industry related companies that are not involved in the Cactus IFT and we need to get the word out and get them to our meetings. Please let your colleagues know about the Cactus IFT section and encourage them to join and share their knowledge with all of us.
Membership in the Cactus IFT section is only $10. If you know of anyone who is interested in joining please have them contact our membership chair Lynn Abarr-Boubelik, her contact information is listed in the newsletter.

We are also trying to increase our student membership which is the future of IFT and the food industry. The Cactus section is a great opportunity for students to network with industry professionals and exposure to potential internships with local companies. There is no better way to get a job out of college by networking before you receive your degree.
In the near future not only will you see the continuation of the quarterly newsletter, but we are also working to develop a Web site and have already started a blog site on the national IFT Web site.

— Brian Giannini