Impressions
Welcome to the New Tripartite !
by Dr . Stephen T . Radack III , Editor
We have always heard that membership in organized dentistry starts at the local level . Obviously , that is why our membership level , the local one , is so important to recruitment and retention of our members . This level will become even more important by the end of 2025 when the new PDA governance changes fully take effect . As you may have already heard from your district trustee or PDA communications , the district as a level of the dental society will be going away . Please take the time to read Dr . Linda Himmelberger ’ s ( chair of the Governance Task Force ) excellent article in this edition of the PDJ ( pages 10-13 ) on the coming changes and why the Board of Trustees and the Council of Districts voted to implement the changes .
As you know , when you pay your annual dues , there have always been four levels of membership ( quadripartite ) that PDA members are part of : ADA , PDA , our district and our local . PDA is the last constituent in the ADA that bills for four levels of membership . There are some areas of the state where the district and local are the same , specifically the First District , which is also Philadelphia County . There are also some districts where the locals do not currently collect dues or may be inactive . The BIG change that is coming this year will be the elimination of the DISTRICT as a dues collecting entity . There will be a true tripartite , with the ADA , the constituent ( PDA ) and the component , which will be the local . As the fourth level is eliminated , some locals may remain a single entity or merge with another , and in some of our areas the current trustee district may become the new component or local .
As we move through this year , each existing district and their locals will need to make the decisions that best fit their needs and their geography . Here in the Ninth District , we have five local societies : Crawford County , Erie County , Lawrence County , Mercer County and Venango County . Each has its own governance , and each decides when and where to meet as well as setting the dues amount it deems necessary . Will some of the locals decide to merge or continue to be a single entity ? We look forward to those conversations this year . We know from the changes that we passed that the Ninth will still exist as a Trustee Region that will still be represented by a trustee on the PDA Board of Trustees and a member of the Council of Trustee Regions ( Districts ). I have written about the challenges of finding volunteers to serve as officers in the district and locals and on PDA committees and task forces . Eliminating one layer of governance might help with this issue . Rather than having to find volunteers to serve on the Board of Directors in our district , it will be our new charge to only find candidates to serve as PDA trustee and representative on the COD .
One of the other major changes in this new governance will be the make-up of the PDA board . Currently , the board has one trustee for each of the 10 Trustee Districts and the current chair of the PDA New Dentist Committee . The new board will be based on the population of the Trustee Regions ( there will still be 10 regions ). The Second will have three trustees , and both the Fifth and Tenth will have two . All of these changes will increase the number of trustees to 15 ! In past governance discussions there have been calls for increased representation for the larger districts . Our board has been more like the U . S . Senate in regard to representation and population . The representation in the former PDA House of Delegates was similar to the U . S . House of Representatives , based on the number of member dentists in each district , resulting in a much larger body .
Will there be some growing pains with this change ? Yes , but I believe it will put the focus on our locals ( components ), in whatever form they look like . The change should strengthen the ones that are already strong and provide the opportunity to resurrect dormant ones , as well as create brand new locals that will provide colleagues the opportunity to meet and develop leaders that may not exist currently . I encourage you to be a part of the solutions in your districts and locals . Ask questions of your leaders this year and be on the lookout for more information . District and local leaders , along with members of the board and COD recently received the Governance Conversion Toolkit to assist all in this transition process during 2025 . For some parts of the state , this will be more of a challenge than others , but we should embrace it and trailblaze a stronger PDA going forward !
— STR3
JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2025 | PENNSYLVANIA DENTAL JOURNAL 5