9th Presidential Matters A Message from the President By Gary M. Scharoff, D.D.S. (The following speech was presented by Dr. Gary Scharoff at his installation as Ninth District President at the Westchester Country Club on November 15, 2017.) Thank you dad for that introduction and for performing our installation today. Before I begin I want to give a special thanks to Stu Coleton. I am so glad that you were able to make it today! For those of you that were unaware, Stu has had a few medical issues recently. I am really glad that you could be here today to help celebrate this day because if not for your urging me to get more involved this day would not have happened. Thank you Stu. It is truly an honor and privilege to be standing before you today as the incoming president of the Ninth District. For those of you that know me the longest, I am sure you too are shaking your head as am I – because I was NEVER going to do this. But, this is an especially profound day for a number of reasons. Of course, because it begins the culmination of my journey to the position of Ninth District President but more importantly for the fact that not only was my dad able to be here to witness this but also able to swear me in as the 110th President of the 9th District Dental Association. Back in 2014 I told my dad that once again his good friend Stu Coleton had “persuaded” me into another commitment to the 9th and my name was being placed in nomination for secretary/treasurer. Stu can be very persistent and persuasive – and generally does not take no for an answer. So, I told my dad I would be president in 2018 and that I expected him to attend the installation in November of 2017. His response to me was: "Gary, I am not sure I am even going to be around in 2018 so I can’t promise anything". In January of 2015, he caught the flu and developed pneumonia. It was at that time the doctors gave him 6 to 12 weeks to live. While we were sitting in White Plains Hospital I told him this is just not going to happen and he better recover because he has to attend my installation. Well I am happy to say the doctors were very wrong and here we are today. While growing up my dad had a satellite office in our house. I would wait at the door between the house and the office listening for when he said goodbye to his last patient of the day and locked the outside door, that was my signal to go into the office and help him finish up. My favorite activities at that time, pushing the button to close the door on the Ritter Model H unit – for those of you that are old enough I am sure you remember, for those that are too young to remember, it looked like an robot and had a door that dropped down on the front so that the air/water syringe and other components could come out from inside. It also had the old belt drive for the slow speed handpiece. I also loved to wait for the timer on the autoclave, I couldn’t wait to turn the knob and listen to that steam vent. Dentistry may have been on my radar as far back as elementary school but getting involved in organized dentistry at this level, especially president of any dental association, well that absolutely had never crossed my mind. My very first exposure to the 9th District was right after I completed my GPR and it came through Bob Bruskin. During dental school I had assisted in Bob’s office on Saturdays and then worked in his office for a few years after graduation. At that time Bob was in charge of the audiovisual equipment for all the general meetings, so of course I would help out. That association with Bob led to my being placed on the Audio-Visual committee. Soon after that came my big break – the Headquarters Committee – and that’s when it all started. During the late 80’s and early 90’s the 9th district was well ahead of the other components in New York state as well as some other state associations when it came technology. We have always  12 BULLETIN NINTH DISTRICT DENTAL ASSOCIATION