How many times have you heard the saying
that 20% of an organization’s members are
the ones holding it together, and the rest,
80%, are not involved? It does not have to be
this way, because each and every one of us
has the ability to make a difference, not only
nationally, but on regional and local levels.
experiences of turning each challenge into
a positive situation and inspiring individuals
to work even harder for our federation.
Through member involvement, these
individuals have become ambassadors,
and I ask each of you to take the lead and
make a difference in the coming year.
It’s Every
Member’s Responsibility
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
By Michael Ty, CEC, AAC
One of the biggest challenges in our
organization is membership growth and
retention. I would like to ask your indulgence
and solicit your input on how we can identify
the reasons for this and how we can retain
existing members. We tend to lose the same
number of members that we gain each
month. Why is this happening?
As I travel the country, I consistently
hear this message: miscommunication,
misunderstanding, and a lack of time
to network and to help colleagues.
Taking time from your busy schedule is
imperative as an ambassador of ACF. Yes,
an ambassador, which is the role for each
and every one of us. Only you can make
a difference. Only you can help retain
members. And only you can rectify any
misunderstandings at local or national
levels. I would be willing to share my
First, take an active role in this initiative
by recruiting at least one new member or
mentoring one person who is seeking value
from our organization. When you become
a mentor to a new member both of you
become active in ACF. The demographics of
our federation show a need for more industry
professional culinarians, and no matter
what your membership category—student
culinarian, culinarian, professional culinarian,
senior culinarian, allied or associate—I would
like each of you to mentor a new member and
get him or her involved with your chapter. Then,
introduce that person to one of our regional
conferences or the national convention.
We have many national members, but they do
not belong to a chapter. We are correcting this
in the near future, and I hope that with these
changes we will be able to work together and
build our membership.
Michael Ty, second from left, attended ACF Tampa Bay Culinary Association Inc.’s annual
awards dinner in September at The Art Institute of Tampa. Chapter members, are, left to
right: Jay Choe, CEC, CCA; Michael Rigberg, CEC, CCA, Chef of the Year; Myrta Mundo,
Apprentice of the Year; Moa Lee; Paul Evans, CEC, chapter president; and Marc Castillo.
Retention of membership is just as important
as recruiting new members. And because it is
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leave, we all need to work harder to keep them.
This past year, the board of directors implemented
a deferred-dues program for ACF members in
good standing who are unemployed and seeking
employment and who cannot pay their dues.
ACF provides a complimentary membership for
one year if a member meets the criteria. Also, did
you know that you can make four equal dues
payments, one each quarter, during the course of
your membership year? ACF offers this program
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economic times, and we want to retain members.
Reimund Pitz, CEC, CCE, AAC, second from right,
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Ambassador designation, Sept. 8, at Le Cordon
Bleu College of Culinary Arts, Orlando, Fla. He is
congratulated by, left to right: Joseph Hardiman,
president, Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts,
Orlando; Ferdinand Metz, CMC, WGMC, AAC,
HOF, executive dean, Le Cordon Bleu Schools of
North America and chairman of Le Cordon Bleu
National Advisory Board; and Michael Ty.
Some chapters have a local membership
category. This category does not exist in our
bylaws, and one of the four criteria for a chapter
to be in compliance at the national level is that it
aligns its chapter bylaws with the national bylaws.
We will explore how we can address this in the
coming year.
continued on page 10 7
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