{ association insights }
The Power of Presence G
reetings fellow MDA members; summer is full swing and I hope all of you are doing well. I want to thank all of the MDA staff and participants who made our Connect4Success event at the Lake of the Ozarks a terrific
success this year. It was a great time, and attendance is increasing ev- ery year, especially among our New Dentists. Our continuing educa- tion classes were well received, and of course Paul’s raffle for the MDA Foundation was a lot of fun—with many of the winners receiving gifts from our participating vendors and Dr. Ron Wilkerson winning the $1,500 grand prize. I say to this year’s attendees: thank you for com- ing. For those who did not, I encourage you to come next year.
Even though I had a lot of meetings to attend to during this event, I had the opportunity to speak to a lot of the younger dentists in attendance, and I am always impressed by their enthusiasm for our profession of dentistry—whether it’s newer techniques and the latest technology or discussions about their experiences so far and what they want in the future. In my mind, this kind of face-to-face interac- tion—this free exchange of information and ideas—and the overall camaraderie at this event, is organized dentistry at its best.
This interaction with all of our member dentists at events like this helps the MDA staff and Board find out the interests of or problems new dentists are experiencing as they practice dentistry. I always welcome suggestions or new ideas, and try to provide information of what the MDA is doing to help them through our legislative agenda or with our meetings with the Missouri Dental Board. I encourage them to contact their trustee or the MDA office for the information that they are looking for. Communication is the key to the success of our organization; understanding what the needs are and addressing those is what we are here to do.
The MDA, as well as the ADA, spends a lot of time and energy on membership—whether it’s attracting new members or the retention of our current members. The ability to answer the question of “why should I become a member” or why membership matters, is all about being able to demonstrate our ability to understand what is really important to our current members or potential members.
I had the honor of attending the “Transitioning Into the Profession Ceremony” (white coat ceremony) at the UMKC School of Dentistry in June. For those unfamiliar, this ceremony is held for the new Junior class at the dental school. White coats with their names on them are presented to the student after they officially sign a “code of ethics”, after which they are now ready to go to clinic to work on patients. It was a great ceremony, one I wished they would have had when I was there. I was part of the receiving line to congratulate them, along with
8 focus | JUL/AUG 2019 | ISSUE 4
The DDS Class of 2021 and DH Class of 2020 were welcomed to the clinical phase of their educational programs during the annual Transitioning into the Profession Ceremony, held Friday, June 7 at the Unity Temple on the Plaza in Kansas City. Several representatives of professional dental organizations attended the ceremony to congratulate each dental student, including, from left, Drs. Dan Kessler, Hal Hale, Jack Nelson and Andrew Moore). The MDA financially sponsors the ceremony to help ensure the continuing of this tradition for students.
several members of other dental organizations. They held an open house at the Dental School afterwards, and I was able to speak with many of the students who had just participated. Their excitement was palpable and real—a great thing to see—and they thanked me for being there. I asked them to consider being a member of organized dentistry. I told them they are spending a lot of time and money to become a dentist and that membership helped ensure that dentistry is kept in their control. That message seemed to be well received.
To sum up my message, it is that in a world that is increasingly im- personal, with cell phones, text messages, email and tweets, gather- ings like Connect4Success and white coat ceremonies—where people actually interact with each other—still are very important to the success of organized dentistry. As dentists we communicate with our patients how to maintain good oral health and what kind of proce- dures we need to perform on them. It is equally important for us to communicate as fellow dentists about how we can improve our profession and to personally reach out to non-member dentists about the benefits of joining organized dentistry. f
