FDFA Formally Announces Committee Members and Appointed Chairs

Within the last FDFA Communiqué of February 2009, the FDFA Board announced the 2009/2010 FDFA standing committees and their mandates (each committee term is from January 2009 to May 2010). The Board is very pleased to announce the FDFA Committee members and their appointed Chairs.

FDFA Committee and Board Members 2009/2010

You will also note that an additional FDFA Committee has been created, which focuses on the FDFA’s business development activities (entitled: FDFA Business Development Committee). For more information on this Committee’s objective and mandate, please refer to the link below. This link provides all FDFA Standing Committee Objectives/Mandates:

FDFA Board Mandate and Objectives 2009/2010

Some of the upcoming committee activities include the following: The Convention Committee is meeting live in Niagara Falls at the end of May 2009 to begin the planning process for the 2010 Convention. As well, the FDFA Supplier Committee will be meeting live in Bromont, Quebec at the Bromont Golf Tournament to discuss their key objectives moving forward.

The Business Development Committee will be working with the Supplier Committee and the FDFA Board on potential professional development workshop programs to offer all FDFA members either at the FDFA Semi-Annual meetings and/or future Annual Conventions. Also, the Business Development Committee is reviewing new features to be included to the FDFA website to ensure greater access of information for all members pertaining to duty free topics of interest.

The FDFA Board of Directors has also begun working on the Strategic Plan, and will contact all its members for their input and feedback in late 2009. On another note, Laurie Karson recently attended the Canadian Convenience Store Association’s Industry Report launch meeting, which included discussions surrounding the impact of contraband tobacco on retailers. This meeting took place in Laval, Quebec in early April 2009.

The Gold Standards Committee has completed the 2009 Launch document and confirmed the majority of its operator participants for this year’s program. Also, a new award has been created this year entitled “Best Marketing/Promotion of a Canadiana Product(s)”. This award will recognize a land border duty free store that best markets and/or promotes a Canadiana product(s). For more details on this award, please see award submission link, which provides details in full.

Best Marketing/Promotion of a Canadiana Product(s)

Gold Standard Participants for 2009/2010

The FDFA Gold Standards Committee is very happy to recognize our new Gold Standards sponsors for 2009. This year, we have a created a multi-sponsored program for several of the individual awards. These sponsors include: Tourism Industry Association of Canada, Travel Markets Insider, Moodie Report, The Americas Duty Free & Travel Retailing Magazine and the FDFA.

For further information on the Gold Standards program, please refer to the FDFA website, where the Gold Standards launch document is posted in full at www.dutyfreecanada.com

Within the next August 2009 Communiqué, more Committee updates and activities will be provided. Do not hesitate to contact the FDFA office or any of the Committee Chair’s if you have questions, suggestions or concerns.

For FDFA Land Border Duty Free Operators – REMINDER: Please note that the FDFA Industry Survey is due to be submitted in by May 29th, 2009. If you have any questions, or concerns, please contact the FDFA head office. Also, the CBSA Program Review is still underway, On April 9th, a CBSA meeting was held with Vice-President, Cathy Munroe, to brief her on the details of the review. However, there are some other rather large initiatives going on in the Agency at the moment, and she asked to put the review on hold before proceeding further. The FDFA will brief the FDFA Owners/Operators on any new developments.