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| Central District Dental Society |
| Newsletter
2009 #4 Vol. XXVIII No. 4 - November 2009 Editor - Amy Lee (Assistant Editor - Lindsay Holliday) |
| Central District |
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| District Meeting |
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District
Meeting Attendees will walk away with a better understanding of: Knowing: When IS the right time? Understanding: What are Buyers looking for? Determining: Benchmarks of a healthy practice. Creating: Options for buying and selling that fit your unique needs. |
| EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE MEETING
Tuesday, November 10th at 7:00 PM All Committee Chairpersons, Delegates, and Officers are
members of the Executive
Committee and are required to attend. Other interested district members
are
welcome to attend. |
| PLEASE …. RSVP for the meeting by
Friday, Nov 6th so that we may have an accurate head
count. Dinner meeting - $20 Thank you! or Pay at the Door $5 extra, or IOUs for $10 extra!! Send to: Dr. Don Benton 4128 Arkwright Rd. Suite B Macon 31210 t.doc@cox.net 0ffice 475-1980 |
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District Business:
Nominating
CommitteeTwo members at-large from the CDDS will be elected at this meeting to serve one year on this Nominating Committee. Nominations will be accepted from the floor. Contact: Lindsay Holliday (Immediate-Past-President is Chair of this committee)  |
Hygiene
Scholarship Awards
will be presented at this meeting: contact: Sheila K. Shah <skshah@bellsouth.net> |
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Central District
Presidential Report
Roy E. Lehrman, D.D.S. |
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Are we giving back enough? Giving Back, An unusual topic for a President Report? Perhaps, but in recent weeks several situations have occurred to make me realize how blessed we are. We live in the greatest country on earth. Our healthcare system is the best in the world. The brave men and women who make up our military and law enforcement allow us to sleep at night and practice our chosen profession by day. This brings me to ask, am I giving back? Am I doing my part? I along with many of my colleagues participated in the GDA’s 150 faces this year commemorating our associates 150 year anniversary. The joy and fulfillment, I got out of restoring a man’s smile is more than I could have ever anticipated. It transformed his life as well as improved his health. My staff was proud to be a part of this special experience. I forget about my day to day problems when he expressed his thanks to us with a cake, a card and a great big smile! On September 18 & 19, The Baptist Mission brought a mobile dental unit to Milledgeville. We had four dentists, Hygienists and Assistants donate their time and talents to the needy of our community. Dr. Tom Brown, Dr. Jay Harrington, Dr. Janet Harrison and I along with our dedicated staff gave freely and received abundantly! I urge each one of you to participate in Law Day this coming March 3, 2010. Our State President, Dr. Percy has issued a challenge for every member to bring a “1st time” Law Day member with you to Law Day. Let’s exercise our right as Americans and Dentists and let our presence be known by participating in Law Day. Remember, Dr. Lee Hawkins needs our support for his campaign. If you have made your $250.00 contribution, I commend you! If not mail it today to the GDA office or bring it with you to our next meeting. I was pleased to see several new members at our September meeting. I hope to see more new faces at our next meeting November 12, at the Idlehour Country Club in Macon. Our legislative meeting is Dec. 1, 2009 at the Brickyard. The legislative meeting is open to spouses, so please bring your spouses. We have no better chance to tell our side of Healthcare Reform. In case you are unaware are we can bring our spouses to Law Day as well? This may be a good way to increase our first time Law Day participants. Remember Central District has won 5 out of the last 6 Law Days, participations which are based on percentage of members, not total count. As I told Dr. Percy the Central District plans to win both challenges. These are but a few ways in which we can give back to our community and our world. I find it’s true that “In giving we truly receive”. Sincerely Yours in Dentistry Roy E. Lehrman, DDS, MAGD |
Some of our speakers from our last meeting :  .... . If you haven’t done so….Please
send your email address to Lindsay Holliday
<teeth@mindspring.com> if you are not receiving your newsletter
on-line in addition to the postal hardcopy too.
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Ty Ivey extends his thanks to the district for the recognition at the last meeting of the Central District: "I saw the fingerprints of Kay and Don Benton, Bill Argo, Roy Lehrman, Jay Harrington, Kara Moore, Shirley Fisher and Jimmy Cassidy. I know that others were involved and I want to thank everyone who was involved. Most of all I want to thank the district for allowing me the opportunity to serve the profession through all of these years. " I also greatly appreciated the flowers for Cathy in recognition for her support and help to me in these endeavors. I hope that I can work from the shadows to keep fighting for our scope of practice and our right to serve our patients. It will also be a goal of mine to help as many of you in the Central District as possible to find an area where you too can take part in working for our profession." With sincere thanks, Ty |
| Member's News: Roy E. Lehrman DDS, MAGD received the Academy of General Dentistry LLSR (Life Long Service Recognition) Award at the AGD National Meeting in Baltimore during July 2009. Dr. Lehrman has also served as a delegate or alternate delegate for the past 19 years to the AGD National House of Delegates. The LLSR is the highest award given by the AGD and less than 100 members have received this award. |
GADPAC- Paul Fraysure - |
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a September CDDS meeting! It was great to see so many new faces, old
faces, and sorely missed faces at such a magnificent venue. At first, I
thought I was at an orthodontic convention. I can't remember ever
seeing so many orthodontists gathered at a CDDS meeting at one time. To hear from our newly installed GDA president, Kent Percy, and our always-informative executive director, Martha Phillips, was just what the doctor ordered. As we begin a new political year, we know that national health care reform and how it will affect each of us personally, as well as professionally, will be on each of our minds. How will the status of the economy, nationally and statewide, affect our practices and how we practice in the future? Will it be Medicaid or the discretionary dollar that will affect us directly or indirectly? These issues are debated and decided on the political stage in Washington and Atlanta. We need every dentist, as well as spouse, to be informed and active in the political process. One of the first places where we can start is by supporting candidates for public office. We have one of our own, Dr. Lee Hawkins, current Georgia state senator and former GDA president, running for Georgia’s Ninth Congressional District (North GA). We need Lee in Washington to support us as a dentist and health care provider just as Charlie Norwood did. There will be others on a local level that will need our support, especially with monetary contributions. Don't forget your GADPAC check off when you renew your ADA/GDA/CDDS membership for 2010. Next, we can attend the CDDS Legislative Reception on Tuesday, December 1 at the Brickyard. Bring your spouse, meet, and greet our district legislators and their spouses. Lastly, don't forget GDA LAW Day at the Capitol in Atlanta on Wednesday, March 3. Join us as we talk with our legislators about pressing issues facing dentistry and our patients and let’s let our collective voices be heard. Go GADPAC! |
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ADA
Delegation This week I attended my very first American Dental
Association House of Delegates as a member of our delegation. It
was an enlightening event that had many surprises in store for this new
delegate. Most people assume when you attend a meeting in Hawaii
that it is more a vacation than it is work…However, this trip was
everything but a vacation (for the first 5 days anyway). As you
know, not only did we have the core values of southern dentists to
defend but we also were hard at work on a campaign for the new
president elect of the ADA. Our candidate, Marie Shweinebraten,
surprised many with her speeches and caucus visits which were head over
heels better than the other 2 candidates. I feel we all did our
best in the campaign, however our new president elect is Dr. Raymond
Gist from Michigan, and it is now up to him to drive the ADA in a new
more open and honest direction. We also unsuccessfully sponsored a resolution for reform that
was developed from the “situation” which Ty alluded to in his
article. The reform resolution was defeated due to the tired
excuse that reform of this type is too expensive or that we are already
fixing the problem. Unfortunately many people are more worried
about what their trustee may think of them than trying to solve the
problem at hand. We will have another year to craft another
resolution that will hopefully protect the ADA from the dishonest
corruption that took place over the last several years. The most fascinating bit of information I learned in Hawaii
came from a female dentist and former President of the Minnesota Dental
Association. I learned first hand that dentist from Minnesota think
that we are all narrow minded and naïve because we think that we
can continue to practice dentistry the way we have for the last few
decades (without midlevel providers). Dentists in Minnesota became
complacent and lost the coveted respect of their legislature, this in
my opinion resulted in the creation of a mid level provider whose
curriculum is currently being developed. Minnesota feels that
because they lost control that it is now up to us (the ADA) to justify
this mid-level provider by accrediting their curriculum and developing
guidelines that will allow us to tolerate the mid-level providers’
existence. Minnesota was persistent in its plea that if the ADA doesn’t
come up with “rules and guidelines” for this provider that then it will
evolve into a “real” problem. I disagreed; I feel that if we
acknowledge this provider and credit it with a definition and its very
own scope of practice that we are in effect giving our consent to such
a disastrous program. In the end, their arguments didn’t change my
mind, or the minds of our delegation and we fought hard to make sure
the scope of practice definitions were not changed due to the collapse
of structure in certain states. It will now be up to the Council
on Dental Practice to decide how we will deal with this new
problem. The war is not over, but the first battle has been won.
I will be updating you in future news letters as the battle over scope
of practice and midlevel providers continues. Thank you for your confidence in me and providing me
with the opportunity to represent you to the ADA. If there is
ever anything you would like more information on please do not hesitate
to ask. |
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Guest Editorial
- Ty Ivey -
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| In the last op ed in August we dealt with the issues of inflation/deflation and bankruptcy of our mythical corporation, the ADA Corp. The version that you read ended with the suggestion that is was time for the Board of Directors of ADA Corp to “decide it is time to protect its common stockholders and make some new plans for saving the ADA Corp from bankruptcy.” In the first draft of bankruptcy, I called for the entire Board of Directors of ADA Corp (Think ADA Board of Trustees) to be fired (aka replaced). I was convinced by a trusted confidant in another state that if I was to be taken seriously, I could not say that. Therefore, I modified the text. After the recent revelations at the ADA annual session, I regret editing the script to be politically correct. I should have called for the Board to be replaced. To digress a little, I have a friend who told me about walking out of the Tri-District Dental Meeting lecture one day in 2001 to discover that the DOW had fallen 1,000 points. He states that he used to think that his stock broker had his best interest at heart. After that day, he determined that he would start reading and learning so that he could take an active roll in the care of his future as it related to his money and his pension plan. I am trying to convince you that you need to take an active roll in the care of your future also. The difference is that the future that I am referring to is the future of your profession and the future of your practice. The revelation that I referred to in the first paragraph is that the ADA’s business enterprise unit (ADABEI) has serious financial problems. You can go on line at www.ada.org/ada/about/governance/hod_2009.asp and find the report that I had in my hand at the Central District Meeting. Since that time the annual session of the ADA was held in Honolulu, Hawaii, and for the first time in twenty years, I was not there to represent you in some form or fashion. Therefore you might think that since Ty can’t tell me what happened in Hawaii, Kara can because she is the new ADA delegate from the Central District. That would not be true. The ADA sent out 120 pages of financial information detailing the problems with ADABEI and the ADA. The report, available only to the delegates of the House of Delegates, was collected from the delegates at the end of the HOD and the report was shredded. The ADA had three attorney client sessions in Hawaii to discuss this report. The only information that I have is that I would not have been happy if I had been there. Now, you are probably asking why the stockholders of ADA Corp can not be privy to the information discussed at the annual meeting of the corporation. For a long time, in my opinion, ADA Corp has misused attorney client privilege to keep members, committees and even the Board of Directors (the Board of Trustees) from knowing what was going on in the organization. I know first hand how this happened with the Task Force to study the Alaska Dental Health Therapist. As a result, the Board of Trustees of ADA Corp did not have all of the information and they were not thorough enough to ask the right questions. And so the ADA Corp Board started giving away the scope of practice and the assets of the membership began to go down. This year the ADA House of Delegates had three “secret” attorney client sessions dealing with the Associations finances. Now, I don't know what happened in Hawaii relative to the ADABEI board. But as a member, I wonder what could be so bad that I can not know what the financial health of my organization is. There obviously were some upset members of the House of Delegates because without any warning the treasurer of ADA Corp and the Speaker of the House of Delegates were both challenged by nominations from the floor. Both of these nominations were surprises to the Speaker and the Treasurer. You would have thought that the treasurer would for sure be unseated because of the financial irresponsibility exhibited under report from ADABEI and whatever mystery caused the delegates of The House to have 120 pages of hidden material. You would have also thought from the grumblings in the hall for the last three years, that the Speaker would have fallen to any reasonable challenger. However, both men were reelected. Is this business as usual at ADA Corp? Now, let us return to our friend who decided to take an active interest in his financial matters. It seems prudent to me that you should take an active interest in your profession. You need to know what your association is doing and you need to know what your representatives are doing in your name when they go to state and national meetings. I hope that if you scrutinize the twenty years that you allowed me to represent the Central District at the national level that you will believe that I fought for the profession and tried to keep the scope of practice in tact. However, the assault on the scope of practice and the profession is greater today than ever before. So the question is how do you know that your state and national leaders are protecting your scope of practice? If you are under the age of 50 are you sure that in the future you will not have some high school graduate with 18-30 months of technical training trying to take your patients away from you from an independent practice or some insurance clinic? Do you know if the delegates that you send to the ADA to vote for you are going to all of the meetings and working with fellow dentists across the country to protect the profession? If you don't know the answers to these questions, you may find yourself in the boat of our unnamed fellow dentist who exited a meeting to find the DOW down 1,000 points. However, I can assure you that if the stock in ADA Corp drops 1,000 points it will not come back up in your lifetime. Therefore, it may be time to ask questions like, what is happening to my profession. The ADA is the ONLY organization that can help you. But do you trust your delegates from Georgia with your future? Maybe you should check and see. Maybe you should take a more active roll in trying to preserve you profession and your practice. - Ty Ivey
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CDDS
EXECUTIVE
MINUTES
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CDDS Minutes from Sept.15,2009
Meeting, Office of Lindsay Holliday
Attending: R.Lehrman, K.Moore, P.Fraysure, A.Peters, J.Harrington, D.Holliman-Smith, Ched Smaha, M.Loden, A.Loden, K.Mathews, L.Holliday, S.Fisher, D.Benton. Minutes Reviewed,Motion made,seconded.to accept as printed in newsletter, Approved. Treasury Report reviewed. D.Benton noted conference call held the previous week to inform and encourage the districts to incorporate to allow consistency with tax exempt status as the GDA. Pres. Roy appointed a Cmt. to make recommendation to decide on best mechanism to satisfy incorporation at the best value to the membership and report at the next EC mtg. Cmt is B.Argo, D.Benton, P.Fraysure. Membership Cmt: Names of new and renewing members noted by K.Moore and Ched Smaha. Suggestion made to all EC members to be sure to recognize at an early point on the agenda Thursday evening.Another social for the new Dentist's is planned for Oct.22, with Perry Dental Lab Sponsoring the event. A motion was made seconded and unanimously approved for the CDDS to pick up expense of invitations for this function. Awards Cmt. Nominations must be in by Oct. 1,2009 Cmt to meet prior for suggestions. Budget Cmt: K.Mathews mentioned that there are only two mtgs a year, no report. Gov't Affairs: Argo noted Lee Hawkins running for U.S. House seat of Nathan Deal who is running for Governor. We will need to support Lee at a high level to show our support early and let his opponents know he is a real player.Make checks to Hawkins for Congress, no corporate checks please! Legislative Reception is at the Brickyard on Dec.1, invitations are being planned and spouses will be included again this year.Also mark your calendars for March 3, 2010 for the CDDS LAW Program Day at the Capitol in Atlanta. B.Argo and P.Fraysure will help coordinate transportation for this very important event - remember that there is strength in a unified voice at the Capitol, plan now to attend and bring another who has not attended! Info technology: R.Lehrman noted that members are currently not able to link to the GDA site from their practice website. Membership services: K.Moore noted that the GDA office has requested that each district send a representative to the Recruitment and Retention Mtg in Chicago March 19&20.Pam Yungk is GDA contact person that we need to follow-up with. Constitution and Bylaws: John Kuo has done an excellent job of comparing and reviewing other districts policy and has been in discussion with K.Moore who will propose a resolution at the next EC Mtg. Council on Dental Health: Shirley Fisher is looking for a young Member to mentor to take over her spot as chair of this Cmt. She noted that Nov.1 is date to beat to get materials from GDA for Children's Dental Health Month and Give Kids A Smile events. Please contact Shirley for more details. Public Relations: L.Holliday noted the DVD on the new oral exam for one year olds. More info to follow. New Dentist Cmt: Already noted the function on Oct.22,Sponsored by Perry Dental. CE Program: Kara gave info and noted that notice would be mailed soon regarding half-day CE for Dentist and staff. Speaker is Jennifer McDonald. PAC Report: P.Fraysure noted the crowded Governor's Race. Stay tuned and get involved in your candidate's race. Please respond on the dues statement to your PAC's request at the $135.00 level. The price of not having a well funded PAC is too great and we should all be contributing to the PAC. Trustee Report: see M.Loden's Report ADA Report: See K.Moore's Report. Roy asked for any additions or deletions to agenda for Thursday's Mtg. No other business noted meeting adjourned. Special thanks to Jim Hall for participating and offering valuable input on the multi-district conference call regarding district incorporation. Respectfully submitted, Don Benton Donald B. Benton,Jr.DMD 4128 Arkwright Rd. Ste.B Macon, GA 31210-1707 478.475.1980 Voice 478.475.5654 Fax 478.960.0287 Mobile |
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Treasurer's
Report
Treasury Report as of Oct.12, 2009
Balance Brought Forward 11,200.87 Withdrawals CDDS Caucus Breakfast 381.90 Macon Letter Svc,Sept.Mailout 662.48 Preferred Trophies/ Holliday,Ivey 114.87 K.Moore,ADA Fifth District Mtg 230.72 Brickyard,Sept, Mtg. 2,620.60 Macon Letter Svc,CE Brochure Mailout 286.68 Deposits Sept. Mtg Receipts 1465.00 Balance 8,368.62 Money Market Acct. 4,993.76 Respectfully Submitted Don Benton |
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The Macon
Volunteer Clinic Needs Help
We could use any of the following donated items: latex gloves -
all sizes - especially large, local anesthesia carpules, resorbable
sutures, gauzes, patient napkins, head and chair covers, barrier sleeve
covers, panoramic films, #15 scapels, and any type of appropriate
germicidal solutions. Thank-you to the Central District for any
help they can give us. The Macon Volunteer Clinic was founded in 2002 to serve the needs of the medically underserved of Bibb County. The dental section was added in 2004. To be eligible as a patient a person has to receive no government assistance and be employed with an income no higher than 200% of poverty level. Patients have to first register in the medical clinic and then can be seen in the dental clinic. Any dentist wishing to volunteer can either join the list of dental staff willing to see patients in their office or come work in the clinic on Mondays. A big thank you to all of the dentists who see our referrals!! Our web site is www.maconvolunteerclinic.com (478) 755-1110. We are located at 376 Rogers Ave. In addition, we are in need of financial donations as well as supplies listed above. Thank you for your interest, Skeet McCurdy <skmccurdy@bellsouth.net> |
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Editors Comments: |
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| Dear Colleagues, I would like to include more items of personal interest from our members. Please email or call me! Thank-you, Amy Lee 152 N Crest Blvd,Ste B
Macon, GA 31210
Cell (478) 951-5639
Office (478) 757-5826 Fax (478) 757-5823
E-mail: DrAmyLee@bellsouth.net
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Important
Dates:
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| Mark your Calendar 2009 November 12 at Idle Hour Country Club. The topic will be practice transitions and practice management. Friday November 13 from 9-12 at Central Georgia Technical College we will be having a CE for dentists and all of their staff. It will be 3 CE's. The topic will be Practice management for the entire office. There will be more information to follow. December 1 - Legislative Reception - City Club of Macon, 7pm 2010 Feb 11 at WRAFB (unconfirmed) Mar 3 LAW Day May 13 regular meeting Newsletter deadlines are 5 weeks before each meeting. |
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CENTRAL DISTRICT OFFICERS
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| CDDS Officers 2009-2010: President - Roy Lehrman Pres Elect - Kara Griffin Moore Vice Pres - Alfred Peters Secretary-Treasurer - Don Benton Editor - Amy Lee Trustee GDA - Mike Loden Delegate to ADA - Kara Moore |
| Committee Appointments: | |
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Committee Appointments: Awards Deena Holliman Smith Const./Bylaws John Kuo Counc. on Dental Health Shirley Fisher Finance Kendrick Mathews Forensic Dentistry Ashley Walker GADPAC Paul Fraysure Gov. Affairs Bill Argo Information Technology Roy Lehrman Membership Services Kara G. Moore Peer Review Thomas Woodcock Public Relations Lindsay Holliday Recruitment and Retention Ched Smaha Workforce Shirley Fisher GDA Delegation: Craig McCroba, Kendrick Mathews (chair), Shirly Fisher, Roy Lehrman, Alfred Peters Alternate Delegates: Lindsay Holliday, Amy Loden, Mike Loden, Deena Holliman Smith, Paul Fraysure Nominating Committee Lindsay Holliday, Kendrick Mathews, Kara Moore, ( 2 at large positions to be replaced at this meeting by nominations from the floor) END OF NEWSLETTER |
| End of Newsletter End of Newsletter End of Newsletter End of Newsletter End of Newsletter End of Newsletter |
| ..Extra Stuff... ..Extra Stuff... ..Extra Stuff... ..Extra Stuff... ..Extra Stuff... ..Extra Stuff... ..Extra Stuff... | ||
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- notes from the ByLaws - - - (webposted Constitution and Bylaws are here - Click-on) Nominating
Committee -
It shall be a policy of the CDDS that the Nominating Committee shall consist of the following: 1. Immediate Past President of the CDDS 2. Chairman of the CDDS Delegation to GDA House of Delegates 3. The Senior ADA Delegate or Alternate ADA Delegate 4. Two members at large from the CDDS. (These members will be elected at the September meeting of this Society. Nomination will be accepted from the floor The Nominating Committee will present its slate of candidates for current CDDS elected positions at the February meeting of this Society. Election of Officers and Delegate positions will be held at the CDDS February meeting. |
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| CDDS
Constitution, Bylaws, Policy Manual |