The Texas Food Processors Association held its 24th annual meeting at the Doubletree Hotel in Austin, Texas, April 18-20.
The business meeting was highlighted by the election of the following new officers: President: Daniel Brackeen of Heritage Specialty Foods; Vice President: David Archer of Del Monte; Secretary: Glendy Grizzard of The Valdez Corporation; Treasurer: Doug Renfro of Renfro Foods. Terry Plum of Plum and Associates and Jerry Brown of Del Sol Food Company Inc. were elected to the Board of Directors.
John Reeves of Authentic Specialty Foods and Craig Brazier of Quest International (outgoing board members) were recognized for their contributions to the association.
Ms. Susan Tennyson, Bureau Chief of the Texas Department of Health kicked off the educational part of the meeting with an overview of what’s happening with the food and drug inspection service. This information can be obtained from their web site at
http://www.tdh.state.tx.us/
The next speaker was Don Fowler with Fowler Energy Company. Mr. Fowler talked about methods to “reduce energy costs in your plant.” He presented information on future prices of natural gas and electricity.
The final speaker on Wednesday was Dale Stephens of Industrial Consortium, who talked about improving food plant safety.
Rich Sweeney of Sweeney and Associates kicked off the Thursday program with an enjoyable presentation on “motivating and keeping good employees.” Rich has met with our group before and is always a popular speaker.
Steve Bruner, a Plant Manager at the Quaker Oats Co. in Danville, Illinois, talked about the changes and improvements they made to be voted a top-ten food plant. The changes reflected human resources and physical resources.