9th Noteworthy And along with all of this clinical knowledge and financial debt and trying to be an entrepreneur; we have outside governmental forces trying to dictate the way we practice, some regulations are reasonable others not so. How should we be regulated? Should we have input or do we let the politicians run the show? After all, when left all to themselves, don’t the politicians do a bang-up job in running things?… I think not!! What is covered by insurance and what isn’t!? All of a sudden, one day you wake up and you’re not a Doctor anymore, you are a provider!! But we still made the top of the list for the best jobs! Why is that??? Lots of reasons, too many to mention all of them here but you know what they are. There is one, that is often taken for granted. Dentistry today has benefitted from those in the past who fought for all of us. We stand on the shoulders of those who have advocated on our behalf without our asking them to do it or even having them make us aware of what they were doing. It’s now time for the next generation of advocates to take the field. It’s time for all of us to be proactive. Complacency will ruin any relationship, any business or organization. Don’t let it happen to us. Let me try to put things into perspective. In your office you have control, you call all the shots. At least as many as you can, some you don’t have any direct influence over. You do what you can to grow your practice. You, and hopefully your staff, Advocate on behalf of your practice to get more market share. Call it what you will but You are promoting or supporting or standing up for your business on the local level, you are an advocate for yourself!! You see a problem in your practice, you fix it as best as you can. That’s the easy part. But how do you affect things on a more global scale, such as government regulations, dues, creating more public awareness of the value of seeing a Dentist who is member of organized dentistry vs. one who is not! Your profession, your practice, and your life is an occasion. I’m asking you to seize the moment and rise to it. Rise to the occasion!! I’m asking you to leave behind a brighter future; I’m asking you to make a difference! 18 BULLETIN NINTH DISTRICT DENTAL ASSOCIATION I’m asking you to be the generation that the next generation of dentists will look up to! I want them to stand on your shoulders! Then I want them to continue to build on the work that you have done to better our profession, much in the same way we are doing now because of the work of others before us. These issues and more were being addressed during my tenure as NYSDA Trustee. I can tell you truthfully, that progress on many of them is occurring…but it is slow. Slow is OK, as long as you are going in the right direction, and I believe we are. In the United States, there are more MD’s then there are dentists but according to my research only 25% of the MD’s are members of the AMA and 64% of the DDS’s are members of the ADA. AS an organization, we have a big voice, but we are losing members for a variety of reasons. Having the biggest voice in the room is what gets things moving. We have to pitch our needs to the legislators. I don’t like it but they don’t listen for free. Roy Lasky, our lobbyist, is one of the best in the business but he needs our support. Now, here’s my challenge to all of you. 1. Be an advocate for your profession, do it directly by getting involved. Volunteer at the Ninth. You can volunteer to work on Committees and work your way up the chain of command if you have the mind to do so. Another way would be to become a mentor to a student. Show them how you do the day to day ins and outs of practice, and at the same time gently whisper in their ear as to the value of membership and its code of ethics. Get them to come to appreciate value of membership but do it in a way that they see the logic of doing so on their own. Make it come from them to see the value. So do it in a way that it becomes their idea not yours. 2. Be and advocate for your profession but indirectly. Contribute to EDPAC become a Capitol Club member. Not all of us want to or can be on Committees so contribute to the cause financially. Don’t be skeptical when you are asked to support EDPAC, it works! Not every action in Albany is done exclusively with the aid of volunteers. Remember, wheels have to be greased! The work lobbyists do costs money!!! The cost annually to be an advocate at the Capitol Club level is just a