As a result of team effort, the IAAND Board of Directors and Leadership Team have accomplished a great deal during this past year.  Below are the highlights:

• The Nominating/Awards Committee led by Brittany Venci, Tania Lee and Marianella Herrera worked thoroughly all the year to evaluate applicants for two cycles of educational stipends, annual IAAND/Affiliate awards, and presented a full ballot (with two qualified candidates for most of the positions) for the Election process as well as recommendations to the Board for appointed positions. The NC works continuously on recruiting volunteers.  Past President Esther Myers worked on a HR role and designed, executed and analyzed a volunteer leader mid-year survey.

• International Projects (IP) Task Force led by Monique Richard (President Elect) was created to evaluate the scope of the IP, positions descriptions and functions. The Board approved their recommendations to budget (up to U$S 5000) for IAAND members´ project funding in alternate years of conference support. Ahlam El Shikieri, stepped in to International Project Coordinator. Previously granted project Diversity Tip Sheets by Prajakta Ranade, is ongoing and Ahlam is overseeing the reports. Other previously supported project was the pilot for Global Certified Trainers from the Academy and Foundation, which execution is delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemia.

• Julie Joy successfully managed the acceptance of the three Kids Eat Right International mini-grants for translation and adaptation of KER tools into Spanish language. Results are posted on our website. Accomplishments and KERI messages were disseminated throughout the website, newsletter, social media and monthly e-news. KERI applicants for next round of mini grants were solicited from African countries.

• University Collaboration Task Force was created and led by Esther Myers (Past President) to identify what information and infrastructure is required/desirable to facilitate collaboration between universities/faculty for research or student experiences at international level. The Task Force has been working diligently and deliverables are expected soon.

• The non-member products that include offerings for annual Webinar subscription, annual Newsletter subscription, annual subscription to Country Information Sheets continues in place. The pricing is based on a tiered system to adjust prices in US$ to an appropriate price based on DOHAD tiers.

• IAAND leaders met with Global MIG Co-Chairs and committed to partner to promote their mutual interest in culturally appropriate and nutritionally sound interventions and may work on joint projects to reach their overarching goals. A summary of our similitudes and differences is posted in our website.

• The Country Representative (CR) program continues to be IAAND “signature product”. With Melinda Boyd leadership, we manage to have 45 countries with CRs (36 CRs in countries with 5+ members out of a total 43 countries with 5+ members in addition to 9 CRs for countries with 4 or fewer members). IAAND awarded 2 mini grants for local meet-ups in the first cycle. Ghana completed their meet up and submitted their article to the Newsletter. India and Taiwan meet up needed to postpone due to COVID-19. For the first time, IAAND offered local association membership mini-grants, we awarded one to the Canada CR.

• Strategic Communications area, under Lily Chen leadership, worked diligently to ensure that our communications include highlights of interest to our members. Marion Eckl quickly learn and took the lead as the Newsletter Editor. She has kept our newsletters on track, merging the monthly E-News and quarterly Passport into the monthly E-Passport, with plans to refresh its design soon. Alaga Palani (Ally) stepped in the social media team, managing the Facebook social media presence and volunteer Dustin Reed kept up to date our Twitter. An IAAND LinkedIn group has been created by Lily. Webmaster Luciana Ambrosi, continued to maintain IAAND website current and easy to navigate.  Sabeen Siddiqui, our member Services Chair, updated the member exit survey to gather information about dropped members, worked on a new membership brochure and created membership graphics for data based decisions. IAAND Media Representative pilot program started to develop and train media reps.  Lisa Dorfman and Sylvia Klinger, using her extensive background in public relations have selected 10 applicants for the first pilot testing of the IAAND media training.  A training webinar for social media management was presented in May 2019. The training program will continue to expand this next year.

• Our Secretary/Treasurer, Abi Navarro kept us on track all year with assistance from our Executive Director. Financial metrics display has been updated monthly in the graphics designed last year. We continue to be in a good financial position with total assets that include an investment portfolio, savings account, and checking account for daily operations. The IAAND WebPortal continues to be the best option for Leadership Team communication, online voting and to organize and store important documentation (meeting minutes, program of work, policies and procedures, etc.) Our Sponsorship Relations Chair, Susan Burke March, started her year updating the name of the position (previously Fundraising Chair) and best practices, supported the sponsorship of Quaker for our first bilingual Spanish-English webinar, and has been working toward future opportunities with other sponsors.

• The Professional Development Committee (PDC) led by Christine McIntosh, worked on the design of a webinar program according to membership input in the webinar topic survey. Eight high quality webinars (on topics like malnutrition documentation, motivational interviewing, intuitive eating, oats and microbiome, nutrigenomics) presented this FY are available in our website to view on demand. The PDC also coordinately worked with our sponsor to oversee a pre-webinar survey and a successful bilingual Spanish – English webinar.  A process has been established to process requests for prior approval of CPE via the Commission on Dietetics Registration (CDR) with application fees tiered by country. A NCP session was presented in the Argentinean Congress of Food and Nutrition with President Romina Barritta and Argentina CR Luciana Ambrosi as speakers. Varsha Tarvady, Scientific/Conference Chair, has been working diligently to plan end execute the IAAND involvement with the Nutrition and Dietetics Association of the Philippines (NDAP) in Feb of 2020. Our participation in the NDAP meeting included a preconvention workshop to empower local RDNs in social media presence (Past President Esther Myers and Media Rep Co-chair Sylvia Klinger and local Dr. Bea Dykes led the successful workshop). Dr. Varsha have also coordinated IAAND participation and in the International Congress of Dietetics (ICD 2020, now postponed for 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemia).  President Elect, along with Varsha, has been working with leaders of DFIM DPG on partnering on future professional development activities around FNCE.  Students Co-Chairs, Tara Flora and Sabeen Hafeez worked on the Students Newsletter and promoting student opportunities like IAAND educational stipends for students.

• IAAND involvement in governance of the profession through our House of Delegates (HOD) Representative, Naomi Trostler, included providing input in the two mega topics: Technology/Big Data and the Total Diet Approach through the lens of thriving in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) World. The dietetics profession must adapt and be responsive, agile, and systems-oriented in its solutions for these issues and others to remain relevant in a VUCA environment. A Professional Issues Survey was sent in May for members to submit professional issues for HOD discussion.

• A COVID-19 Discussion forum has been started for members and non-members for resource sharing.

Official End of Year Financial Summary: To Be attached in July after FY 2019-2020 records are finalized

Submitted by Romina Barritta, IAAND President 2019-2020
May 2020