The Association for Healthcare Foodservice (AHF), recently formed by the merger of HFM and ASHFSA, has voted to pursue contract negotiations that will make FSA Management Group its association management service provider. The Louisville-based company had been managing the American Society for Healthcare Food Service Administrators (ASHFSA) for the past seven years.

The blind-ballot vote took place on June 4, after an all-day meeting of the new AHF board at which FSA Management Group and Kellen Co. (which had managed HFM) both made lengthy presentations.

“We had to make a choice between two very capable organizations,” says Marty Rothschild, vice president of sales and marketing for Aladdin Temp-Rite. Rothschild was on the 13 member evaluation committee and will be the new chair of AHF's Industry Advisory Board.

“We had to put aside our biases and make a straight business decision based on specific criteria the organization had established. The vote was not unanimous, but a sound majority favored FSA. Walking out from the meeting, it was fully supported by everyone in the room.” The new management team will be led by interim executive vice president Keith Howard, an FSA veteran and former ASHFSA Executive Vice Pesident.