Title: Food and Nutrition Section News
Author:
Section/SPIG: Food and Nutrition
Issue Date:
Membership Report:
As of July 16, the APHA members Web site listed 648 Food and Nutrition Section primary section members. This is up from the official report of 623 on March 31, but still down from 653 in 2002, and 719 in 2001. APHA recently provided a list of our lapsed members over the past three years. Excluding 35 from 23 other countries, the list contains 675 lapsed members of the following types: Regular: 394; Student: 243; Special Health Worker: 30; Retired: 29; Consumer: 27; and, Contributing: 11. A sample of students and regular members were contacted by e-mail, however only a small percentage replied.
Those that did expressed regret that competing priorities for time and money influenced them to pare down memberships in professional organizations. The 2003 Membership Committee would appreciate hearing your ideas for retaining our current members and recruiting new or lapsed members. Committee member Pamela Darby distributed a recruitment message by e-mail to members of the Association of Graduate Programs in Public Health Nutrition, Inc. to pass along to students.
Co-Chair Elvira Jarka is busy putting together a section booth for the 131st Annual Meeting at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco to welcome members and attract new ones. The exhibition will be open on Sunday, Nov. 16 ,from 2 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Monday, Nov. 17, from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 18, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Wednesday, Nov. 19, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The section booth is #1748. Please contact Elvira Jarka to volunteer your ideas and time setting up or staffing the booth, <EJarka@HRSA.GOV>. Every member can help with recruitment by communicating with colleagues regarding the benefits of membership in APHA and the Food and Nutrition Section. Be sure to share our vision and mission via <www.aphafoodandnutrition.org/>.
Section Web site:
If you have not already done so, please check out our section Web site at <www.aphafoodandnutrition.org>. The site provides useful and up-to-date information on issues that are relevant to our Section. The popularity of the Web site is rapidly increasing. Monthly hits have grown from 2,745 in January to 7,600 in June. Our busiest month was April with 37,282 hits. April included National Public Health Week with its focus on obesity prevention and the launching of our obesity Web site.
The Web site includes officer contact information and office descriptions, a link to APHA membership information, copies of the strategic plan, newsletter, and nutrition policy statements and resolutions and information on our section awards. The Web site also includes a student section with nutrition tips, a listing of Schools of Public Health, Nutrition and nutrition organizations, information on internships and a link to APHA public health links. Moreover, do not forget to check out the links to other APHA section Web sites, nutrition resources, information about the APHA Annual Meeting, nutrition meetings and other continuing education opportunities.
Additionally, there is a link to our obesity Web site with a plethora of information and resources on childhood obesity. This has been the most popular page with over 800 views in both April and May and close to 400 in June and July.
A short survey is posted on the Web site. It is not too late to give us feedback on the Web site and suggestions for making the section more responsive to your needs by completing the survey. Or, you can e-mail your comments to Dena Goldberg at <denagold@uwyo.edu>.