Message from the President:

Over this past year we have seen many changes in the industry and many of us have watched restaurateurs close their doors as they have been gobbled up in the current economic times. The new buzzwords in our business seem to be change and adapt. Words that have always been necessary are now the corner stone of our survival. As many of us have learned to change and adapt, our organization has also undergone some big changes. This July we watched the ACF, our parent organization, change all officers from top to bottom. Our new ACF president Chef Michael Ty, CEC,AAC has promised to guide us through the next two years. He has planned to make some changes to the organization that should help keep us afloat. Chef Ty has asked each chapter to do their part and has asked each Regional Vice President to take part in some pretty big goals.

One goal for this year is that each chapter increase the “Professional Culinarian” category by 50%. This is the category of members in our chapter that pay $225.00 per year for membership. We ended 2008 with 42 professional culinarians and to date in 2009 we have 55. That is a net gain of 13. We have the Art Institute to thank for much of that and for significantly increasing the number of certified chefs as well. (JOB WELL DONE!)

Another goal is for the ACF as a Federation to become IRS compliant. This requires each chapter to provide the ACF National office with an updated set of our chapters bylaws, a copy of our current tax Id number and a copy of our Articles of Incorporation as a 503-C organization. It was reported that only 38 of our 225 chapters have complied with this requirement. I think of this as a house keeping detail, but due to the magnitude and importance of it, I can see why it has hit the goal sheet.

I am proud to say that our chapter officers from the previous administration have kept excellent records and getting our chapter compliant with this goal is going to be easy. That being said, getting compliant with the membership goal is not going to be as easy. It is a challenge and I am willing to do what it takes to step up and meet it head on. Simply put, we need 8 more Professional Members in our chapter before the end of 2009, while at the same time not losing any we already have. I don’t look at it as a membership drive per say, but more as a membership enhancement. Don’t get me wrong, we will take all the members we can get, but we really need more professional members to make things financially stable. (JUST - 8 - MORE)

Any member that can assist us with this national ACF goal would not only be supporting the ACF, but would also be supporting the Middle Tennessee Chapter at the same time. We receive a portion of each new member’s dues on an annual basis. I could list all of the benefits of membership, but some of them can be subjective. The biggest single thing that should draw new members to us is not subjective and that is: The fellowship of our organization. That’s right! You the member are the best thing we have going for us. Other chef’s join us because they want to associate with us. We, are chef’s in action, we are going places! We care about our profession and we care about others in our profession.

The quality of our meetings says a great deal about who we are. Participation is the biggest factor in making the meetings great. Our Vice President, Chef Anna Lia Hicks and our Web Master at Large, Chef Robert Siegel, have really made the meetings something worth attending. Each of them has worked hard on putting together hosts and programs that have really made things happen. Without you, the attending members, it would not be possible. No one wants to come out and present at a meeting if there is only 20 people in the audience. Because of you, recently we have averaged 75-100 people at many of our meetings and that is something to be very, very proud of. So if you didn’t feel like what you are doing counts, you’re wrong, it does! Keep showing up at meetings, encourage other chefs to come, encourage them to join and I think we will meet our goal.

THANKS! - Michael R. Osborne, CEC President, ACF - Middle Tennessee Chapter

Michael R. Osborne, CEC

Chapter President

Chairman
of The Board
Chef Gary
Rawson

President
Mike Osborne CEC

Vice President
Chef Anna Hicks

Secretary
Kim Ingram

Treasurer
Chef Rick Kahre

Sergeant At Arms
Chef Willie Jemison