Meeting Your Needs

During IFT18 in Chicago, I was incredibly fortunate to take part in a panel session titled “Women: Be Your Own Champion.” The panel featured IFT Immediate Past President Cindy Stewart, IFT President-Elect Pam Coleman, University of Illinois professor Soo-Yeun Lee, and me, all reflecting on our experiences as women in the science of food profession.

It was, without a doubt, one of the highlights of my IFT18 experience, and it taught me some important lessons about today’s IFT.

In the hours leading up to the panel, I was approached by several young women, each of whom mentioned how excited they were to attend. When I later arrived at the stage a few moments before the session began, it was clear that this sentiment was shared—dozens of attendees (mostly young women) had filled the seats, and still more were standing beside them.

From the moment the panel started, I could tell I was a part of something special. Even though we all came from different backgrounds—industry, academia, and government—Cindy, Pam, Soo, and I quickly found we’d all had similar experiences in our careers. The conversation flowed easily, and we all bounced off each other’s comments. We didn’t hold back, and the stories we told were very personal. (I wonder if, before the #MeToo movement, we would have held back more?)

Looking out into the audience, it was clear just how much people wanted to hear these stories. No one had their phone out or was chatting with the folks sitting around them. People were completely engaged, curious about our experiences, and eager to learn from them.

Though it was incredibly empowering, sitting alongside these incredible women as we shared our collective experiences, it was also therapeutic. We were all fortunate enough to have reached a point where we are now leaders in the field, but there were plenty of times when it wasn’t so easy. Hopefully, thanks in part to our struggles, today’s young professionals are better off and will face fewer obstacles along their career journeys. But ultimately, our industry won’t see true change until we articulate these struggles and take the necessary action to address them, and I believe IFT has the potential to be a real leader in this area.

IFT has an obligation to listen to our members’ stories and address their needs as they travel the winding road of career development. And I believe it’s up to us, as leaders, to help provide that. In recent years, IFT has begun offering a range of new resources to our members that focus on the “soft skills,” with sessions and webinars covering aspects of professional life that school doesn’t often teach. IFT aspires to be a place where people from all backgrounds and at every stage of their careers can address such needs, all while finding unparalleled community and educational resources.

By providing our members with this holistic approach—with everything from scientific panels at our annual event, to our award-winning documentary Food Evolution, to online and in-person networking opportunities, to nearly 100 on-demand webcasts and short courses—IFT is able to support our members with everything they might need over the course of their careers, whether it’s those critical scientific resources or “soft skills” training or both. We want IFT to be the first place you think of when you need help in your career, and the first place you recommend to a friend or colleague when they need the same.

Part of how we determine what it is you are looking for and evaluate how well we are providing those things is with our annual Member Needs Survey. The data from the survey help guide the decisions we make regarding IFT programming, communications, member value, resources, and content. We recently wrapped up our 2018 survey, with more than 2,000 members participating. Over the coming months, the IFT staff will be working diligently to evaluate the results of the survey and coordinating with the Board of Directors to determine how we, as an organization, can best serve you: our members. I look forward to sharing some of the results of this year’s survey with all of you in the months to come.

But our decisions aren’t informed by the survey alone. Please, reach out and let us know what it is you want from your IFT experience and share how we can help you in your professional pursuits. We want to hear from you and learn from your stories. It’s the only way we can truly create an IFT that meets your needs.

Michele Perchonok, PhD, CFS
IFT President, 2018–2019
[email protected]