Last December, the Institute of Packaging Professionals presented the 2001 AmeriStar Awards at a special presentation at Northern Illinois University’s campus in Naperville, IL, not far from the new IoPP headquarters’ office. It represented the first time in many years that the awards (see www.packworld.com/go/c009) were not presented during a major packaging show. “Because of the timing when we began to manage the organization, we were unable to tie the awards to a trade show as had been done in the past,” says Edwin O. Landon, executive director. “But this year, the awards will be tied into Pack Expo Intl. in November. We put out the call for entries in February, and our deadline for submissions will be in June.” The winners will be displayed at Pack Expo Intl. in Chicago, and the awards presentation will occur during the show. Landon says. In addition, Pat Farrey, IoPP general manager, will represent IoPP at the World Packaging Organisation meeting in Düsseldorf, Germany, during interpack 2002. “We look forward to remaining a part of that organization, including bringing our AmeriStar winners into the WorldStar program. That’s a great benefit to the winning packages,” Landon says. Also in spring 2002, IoPP will again publish Who’s Who and What’s What in Packaging, its membership directory and resource to packaging organizations. “For some reason,” Landon says, “it wasn’t published last year. But we plan to make it an annual member service like it used to be.” Farrey was asked whether its membership list might become part of the organization’s Web site, which he’s developing. “We’re not sure we want to put that on the Web site. We think there should be some electronic component to the membership directory, but we’re not sure yet what it might be. “What we don’t want is to put it out there where it could become a giant mass-mailing list, so any company could send its materials to all our members,” Farrey continues. “It needs to be more exclusive than that.” Currently, the Web site that Landon and Farrey inherited, www.iopp.org, is still up and operational. But a new site, www.iopp.net, is also up; it’s just incomplete. “The new site has a special section that’s password-protected so members can update their information,” Farrey says. “Plus they can pay dues, buy books, register for events, all in a protected way. It’s taken us months to get all these changes ready.” The old site has been a handicap, Farrey says, because it can’t be changed—even cosmetically—without impairing its functionality. For example, it can’t even alert members to the new site. Two additional features may be added to the new site by our press time: the complete addition of the bookstore with secure credit-card transactions, and a new job-matching service. “We’re asking the board to sign a contract with a job-matching programming developer so that we can add it to our new site,” Farrey explains. “That’s really important in today’s economy.” “This is all about bringing to members benefits that nonmembers won’t receive, or, in some cases like books and event registration, will have to pay more for,” Landon adds. “This philosophy is to be a more member benefit-driven organization. After all, our mission is education. That’s why our slogan is ‘more success.’”
See the story that goes with this sidebar: What’s ahead for IoPP?
