Gissur Gudmundsson
President

To: WACS Continental Directors, Members, and Past Committee Members

Reykjavik, Monday, 29th May 2008

Dear members of WACS,

New ways of working and organizing come with a new presidium and board. In our campaign, we promised to ‘Rethink Tradition’. In this spirit, it is my pleasure to announce that we have made the decision to reform the WACS Committees. As it stood in the past, there were seven (7). For efficiency purposes, we have decided to merge some of the committees together to form three committees. Each committee will be formed by a representative member from the seven (7) Continental areas of WACS. All Committees must report to the Board.

The three committees are as follows:

The Culinary Competitions Committee:

- This Committee is responsible for preparation and maintenance of the WACS Culinary Guidelines and Rules for WACS Approved Competitions. Focus will be on ensuring the development of new competitions by advising the organisers, evaluating, classifying and approving the competitions.

- It is responsible for monitoring conduct of both judges and competitors at WACS Approved competitions and for maintaining and managing the WACS Approved Judges List. It will also be responsible for creating and then applying and maintaining a Judges Rotation System which will be effective for all WACS Approved Competitions and organising and holding regular educational Seminars on competitions and on judging.

- It is also responsible for ensuring that appropriate resource and training materials for WACS Approved competitions are developed. It is to review WACS competition activities, including but not limited to the Global Chefs Challenge and the Hans Bueschkens Junior Chefs Challenge and make recommendations as appropriate.

The Education Committee:

- Its role is to oversee the development and operation of all WACS Approved educational programming which include the WACS Global Certification,

- Train-the-Trainer and Master Chefs Certification programs and the new Juniors and scholarship programs).

- Assessing members’ educational needs, reviewing content for WACS educational activities and recommending and developing new educational activities and opportunities for the WACS members.

- Inform the WACS members of educational opportunities available through WACS.

- Responsible for reviewing scholarship applications and participate in the selection process, putting together seminars, maintaining a list of WACS Accredited Schools and Programs and reviewing and approving programs.

The Communications and Marketing Committee:

- The Marketing Committee is responsible for the promotion of WACS through various media (print, web, etc.),

- Promoting active involvement of the members and advising on the recruitment of new members, public and member relations, overseeing WACS business development as well as administering and overseeing the WACS website and its contents.

- Responsible for managing and overseeing the WACS booth and its contents (brochures, promotional gear, etc) and for preparing and submitting media releases.

- Responsible for developing and planning for the WACS Congress, in conjunction with the host country

- Managing and overseeing the Humanitarian program and the Women in WACS program and finally, they will be responsible for anything which has to do with medals, awards and recognitions.

The By-Laws and Finance Committees will be dissolved and will now be under the responsibilities of the whole Board.

With this letter, I am also informing you all that I have appointed Chairmen for these three committees.

I am happy to announce and to welcome the new Chairman for the Culinary Competitions Committee, Robert Oppeneder, the Chairman for the Educational Committee, John Clancy and the Chairman for the Communications and Marketing Committee, Martin Kobald.

NEW Application Process

A new application process has been created for the selection of Committees Members which requires all members, current or prospective, to fill out an application form. This form (attached), was created in an effort to satisfy criticism from member countries which suggest that WACS Committee Members, in the past have neglected their National Associations, once involved at this level in WACS. By getting every application approved by the Continental Directors and Member Country Presidents, a certain responsibility is assured, both for the member country and for WACS that the Committee Members will work for on behalf of both.

Continental Directors and Presidents are encouraged to send this application out to interested members of their associations and send them back, filled out correctly to restaurant@restaurant.is before July 1st, 2008.

A final decision on the Committee Membership will be made, in consultation with the Chairmen and the WACS Board, at the next Board meeting which will be held July 11th to 15th in Johannesburg, South Africa.

It’s my hope that I can count on your support to fulfil the task needed to be done in the next few months. I will go over a few important issues with each Chairman that we, in the Board, have identified as critical and will require you immediate attention.

I look forward to working with you all in the next months to achieve our goals.

On behalf of the new Presidium of WACS and the Board members, we thank the outgoing committee members in advance for their excellent work and welcome new members to the WACS Committees.

Yours Sincerely,

Gissur Gudmundsson
WACS President
Tel + 354 5622264
Mobile + 354 8975988
Email restaurant@restaurant.is
Web www.wacs2000.org

Cc WACS Board
Past WACS committee members

Application for WACS Committee Member. Click here to download