Earlier this year, CRN surveyed our membership to determine what we are doing well and where you want us to improve. For the next several months, each issue of The Report will update you on what you told us, and what steps CRN is taking to respond to your direction.
This week's comments:
CRN’s Legal Committee is a strong advocate on behalf of the dietary supplement industry. Please continue this work.
Members told us they appreciate that CRN’s Legal Committee addresses a variety of challenges for the industry, including: close monitoring of California’s Prop 65 and providing comments and testimony to OEHHA as appropriate, the exchange of information on class action litigation, and regular updates on FTC investigations into advertising and claim substantiation.
What we’re doing to get even better:
This year, our Legal Committee has interacted more closely with the Regulatory Affairs and Government Relations Committees (RAC and GRC) on topics of mutual interest like probiotics labeling, state-imposed registration requirements and dietary ingredient overages. We have expanded our role of submitting amicus briefs in class action litigation to provide industry perspective to the courts and served as a conduit for information about newly-imposed retailer testing requirements for supplements.
You asked us to host more conferences and events on the East Coast.
For the past decade, CRN’s Annual Conferences have been held west of the Mississippi River. East Coast-based members asked that we consider holding more events “back East.”
What we’re doing to get even better:
We have observed that attendance is always better at west coast venues for our Annual Conference, allowing more members to attend and also providing better choices of venues (and then there’s the potential of hurricane season in the southeast U.S. at the same time as our events). So, while the CRN Annual Conference is held on the West Coast, every year CRN hosts four major conferences or events in the East. CRN also holds four board meetings per year—normally in Washington, DC—and CRN Board meetings are open to all CRN members. So, CRN now offers numerous events at which more members can connect with us.
Here’s next year’s calendar of East Coast events:
Thursday, March 14, 2019 Board of Directors Meeting (Washington, DC)
Tuesday, May 14, 2019 Regulatory Summit (Washington, DC)
Tuesday–Wednesday, May 21–22, 2019 May 2019 CMOC Meeting (New York, NY)
Wednesday, June 12, 2019 CRN’s Day on the Hill (Washington, DC)
Thursday, June 13, 2019 Board of Directors Meeting (Washington, DC)
Tuesday–Thursday, June 18–20, 2019 CRN-ACI Legal Conference (New York, NY)
Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019 Board of Directors Meeting (Washington, DC)
Friday, Dec. 6, 2019 Board of Directors Meeting (Washington, DC)
To make this an ongoing conversation, please tell us additional areas on which you want CRN to focus. Send your thoughts to:
Carl Hyland Senior Director, Membership Development, chyland@crnusa.org