FROM THE PDA CEO
Welcome to the 2016 Pennsylvania’ s Dental Meeting( PDM)!
I am pleased to report on the state of PDA during the past year with a sense of great accomplishment, but also with hope for a more deliberate pursuit of substantive and objective outcomes that reflect our members’ wants and needs.
A large portion of the year was focused on governance issues again. Much like our nation’ s forefathers, PDA leadership continued to shape our new PDA“ nation,” addressing unexpected challenges along the way.
CAMILLE KOSTELAC-CHERRY,
ESQ.
• Campaign guidelines were developed and refined to ensure fairness in the election process. The election procedure also was fine-tuned and showed an increase in the number of engaged members who cast votes. It is clear that PDA’ s message of inclusiveness is being heard.
• At the request of the Council of Presidents, several governance issues were proposed, considered and acted upon.
• Bylaw amendments were adopted to accommodate the governance tweaks that were necessary.
• An extensive analysis of PDA’ s membership database system was done over a two-year period to consider the suggested conversion to ADA’ s Aptify database. After careful consideration, the Board of Trustees determined that the Aptify database was not the best fit for PDA.
• At the recommendation of our ADA trustee, the board contracted with Opis LLC to develop a PDA Strategic Plan( page 5) and to conduct a membership survey. These will be the tools your leaders will utilize to move your organization forward.
• The blueprint for future PDM formats and locations has been an ongoing topic of board discussion.
• Monitoring the activities and finances of the PDAIS / Bell acquisition.
Meanwhile, your board maintained a focus on the important substantive initiatives that PDA must develop to remain relevant to our mission and purpose. The new strategic plan was adopted as a framework for constructing those initiatives based on the stated needs and preferences of our members. The three stated goals( Finance, Membership, Organizational), as well as the related objectives and strategies, will be shaped by the results of the recent membership survey. The board is committed to ensuring that PDA’ s efforts are targeted to substance and fit within our strategic plan. Legislative endeavors are also targeted toward member needs, and financial stewardship is a priority at every meeting.
Unfortunately, due in large part to the legislature’ s difficulty in passing a state budget, legislative initiatives stalled across the board. However, both your leadership and our experienced dentist advocates, along with our lobbyists and government relations staff, have remained steadfast in pursuing PDA’ s priority items. They have spent countless hours meeting with legislators to keep PDA and the dental profession positioned favorably.
4
Financial stewardship has become an increasingly more interesting balancing act for PDA. Declining membership has always been, and continues to be, a predominant theme. However, the Bell acquisition in our for-profit subsidiary has created a ripple effect which negatively impacts the PDA budget, and consequently, much of our programming.