Dear Members,

It's Spring again already, which means it is time for the Society of Flavor Chemists Annual meeting. This year has gone by so fast. It has been a challenging and successful year. We had to deal with the repercussions of 9/11 including speaker cancellations and travel restrictions of our members. The Society is in great shape though. We have added several new enthusiastic members to our fold as well as upgraded several Apprentice members to the Certified rank.

In January, we had our first official west-coast meeting in California. We invited NAFFS and CSA to join us in this meeting. There were some excellent flavor and flavor related presentations. The meeting was well received by our West Coast members. This is an important way for these members to attend, participate and become more involved in the Society. We plan to utilize and build on the success of this meeting and have more west-coast meetings in the future.

There have been a number of members who have step forward to volunteer for committee work. This is the lifeblood and future of the organization. I can't stress enough how exciting and rewarding it is to be involved in the Society. This is where you as a member have the opportunity to make a difference in the Society. We have had great attendance to the meetings this year. There were excellent speakers for both the dinners and educational sessions who encourage curiosity, learning and excitement. If you have ideas on speakers or topics you would like to see please contact the Program committee or the board.
Our web-site continues to get more useful. The membership database listing is now available to members. Here we can look up and modify our personal information such as addresses and company affiliation. We can also find our fellow members quickly by using this database. We are in the process of transitioning the employment opportunities into the web-site. Our membership committee information and the Society's new lexicon will be posted soon. The Newsletter and By-laws are available now. This should make information more accessible to the all of our membership.

I would like to thank the members for your support this year. Thanks to all the committee members and volunteers. Most of all a special thanks for the board members who have worked so hard to make the Society of Flavor Chemist a better organization. Being President and serving on the board has been a rewarding experience. I look forward to the future growth of the Society based on the foundations we have built together today.

Sincerely,

Bob Vogt
SFC President