Obituary or rebirth?

With the last presentation by consultant Georgie Shockey last Friday morning, the National Society for Healthcare Foodservice Management took its last breath. After 21 years, the association founded by Angelo Gagliano for operators who wanted their hospital foodservices to remain self-op, succumbed to the current economic climate.

All week long, references were made to "the last." The last conference, the last awards, the last culinary competition, etc. Every award presentation at the awards dinner was given with a little more emotion than usual, and when President Bruce Thomas gave his touching and emotional farewell speech, I suspect there were more than a few moist eyes among the 300 or so dinner guests.

Despite all that, the conference at the Renaissance Esmeralda in Indian Wells, Calif., was hardly a wake. A retrospective, perhaps. But far from a funeral. Because HFM hasn't died. It simply is being reborn.

As is now well-known throughout the foodservice industry, HFM and the American Society for Healthcare Food Service Administrators have consolidated into a new entity, known as the Association for Healthcare Foodservice (AHF). In an amazing spirit of compromise and solidarity, the two groups—which many people considered rival organizations because ASHFSA allowed contract companies to be members and HFM was staunchly anti-contractor—found that their common goals and challenges were much stronger than their differences. They also realized that, in this economy, one association could be much stronger than two, in terms of membership and industry support.

Now, the work of melding two cultures into one begins. I suspect that the real challenge will come from blending members from two boards of directors and industry advisory councils. HFM developed a way of doing things over its 21 years, and ASHFSA did the same over a history that spanned more than 40 years. So there will be a few discussions and debates along the way as board members argue for "their" way of doing things.

But these will be minor, and most members will simply see a larger, stronger organization that will have more resources to provide value to them. The creation of AHF was a tough, but wise decision by members of both organizations. Now that the new era has begun, we wish the consolidated board well as it helps members do what they always have strived to do: provide top-quality service to patients, employees, guests and their communities at large.