Grand Hyatt Hotel, 17-18 october 2008

San Antonio, Texas

President James Englander opened the Annual Meeting of the PFA on Friday, 17 October, at 10 a.m. following the Section Chair Caucus at 8 a.m. The Invocation was given by Editor James Brophy calling to mind the recent passing of our dental leader H. Raymond Klein.

President's Report

Opening remarks were given by President Englander who recalled his major goals for the year as 1) mentorship and 2) recruitment and retention. Dr. Englander noted that PFA succeeded in developing the mentorship concept in several states and throughout Latin America. Mentorship means many things, but basically it is a way to share and prepare for the future of our profession. Mentorship means to counsel, to advise, to help, to support, to aid, and to be a friend to our young dentists who are the key to the future of organized dentistry.

The University of Mississippi Medical Center, School of Dentistry, Associate Dean Dr. William Buchanan and Dr. Karen Crews, with financial help from Dr. James Long and the Foundation, developed a mentoring DVD/CD as tool for developing the Mentorship Program.

In visiting Europe, Dr. Englander discussed the concept of mentoring, but we need more time to develop the mechanism.

With the retirement of many senior Fellows from our profession, and their transition from active status to life membership, recruitment and retention continues to be a challenge for the Academy. We depend on fresh ideas and enthusiasm.

There are many fine individuals who have the potential to give back to our profession who need to be recognized with Fellowship. I have encouraged our members to seek out these worthy individuals and submit their names for Fellowship.

There have been some problems between the Academy and the Foundation, but nothing that we cannot resolve together for the benefit of our joint mission.

Secretary General's Report

Secretary General Richard Kozal established that a quorum was present to conduct the business of the Academy and gave his report. Computer activities continue updating and refining the database to stay on the cutting edge in computer technology, which is updated weekly. Dental World is also available online now.

Dues statements were mailed out, and most dues have been paid for 2008. The ones for 2009 have been printed for mailing in November. Dues for 2009 will be $125 for U.S. Fellows with a request for a $20 donation for the Educational Programs of the Academy. The one-time Initiation fee will stay at $150. International dues will be $110.

The Central Office prepared 24 Outstanding Dentist of the Year plaques and seven outgoing Section Chair plaques. Requests for Fellowship Certificates for Induction Ceremonies are prepared along with new neck ribbons and Fellowship keys. Many are now presented with an Induction Ceremony to stress the importance of the honor. Seventy-two out of 74 schools in the United States and Canada requested the Student Award Certificates along with five in India, one in Ireland, and four in Australia. These letters for the student awards were sent at the same time as the ones for the Foundation Scholarship Award.

The Management and Finance Committee holds quarterly meetings to review the financial information of the Academy. The annual Corporate Report has been filed with the State of Illinois, along with the "Foreign Corporation" Report with the State of Nevada. The annual review by an independent accounting firm was completed last July and filed. All the books were in proper order.

The 2008 delinquent dues notices have been mailed.

The PFA Dental History Museum continues to grow with donated antique dental items. The National Museum of Dentistry negotiations for retaining our Wall of Fame did not go successfully, and the Hall of Fame plaques have been returned to the Central Office. Past ADA President and PFA Hall of Fame Founder Joseph Cappuccio has arranged for wall space in the new building at the University of Maryland. This will become the premier U.S. site for our Wall of Fame as the ADA venue is merely a coded television with the Hall of Fame series on call-up. The top Hall of Fame site, as arranged by retired European Trustee Pierre Marois, is located in the headquarters of the French Le Conseil de Ordre des Chirurgiens Dentistes in Paris.

Online dues payments and credit card payments for social functions are proceeding nicely and efficiently under our new Vista Program. This is available for all Fellows except in Canada.

All invoices have been paid as of 31 September 2008, including the one to Elsevier, our publisher.

To date 441 new Fellows have been processed. Some 32 partial rate new Fellows have also been processed but do not receive Dental Abstracts/Dental World.

Voluntary donations collected for the Foundation apart from the direct fundraising by the Foundation have totaled $39,000 for 2008 as of 10 September 2008. Bank statements were contained in the Meeting packet for review by the Board of Trustees.

The Accountant's Report substantiated the Academy's solid foundation back in the black this year, but cautioned the Board to be wary of the upcoming year--Elsevier has raised the subscription price for Dental Abstracts six dollars per year per Fellow; the ADA/PFA Meeting in Hawaii will be expensive; postage has gone up; printing costs have risen; credit card processing costs the Academy; the Web site improvements are more costly; interest on PFA assets is down to 2.47%; the lock box dues collection is an added cost; and the Foundation grant to the Academy has been suspended. To offset some of these costs, officer travel has cut back; the Section rebate program has been temporarily suspended; and more careful budgeting has been implemented. With the dour outlook on the economics of the coming year, every item needs to be scrutinized.

Constitution and Bylaws Committee

Howard Mark, chair, suggested wording changes to Chapter VII--Officers and Trustees Tenure; Chapter XV--Standing Committees, Hall of Fame Committee composition, duties, and term. The changes presented by Dr. Eller passed unanimously by the Board.

Web Site Report

Mark Stanley, our Webmaster, reported that next year all U.S. Fellows and Fellows in 11 other countries will be able to use credit cards to pay their 2009 annual dues. This will be through an Internet payment gateway called "Authorize.net," which will be a secure process. Annual Meeting Online registration and payment will be available. The Membership Directory Database redesign will be upgraded to work in sync with the Central Office database.

Home page revisions have been made to provide links to the News Pages Index, a list of recent Dental World PDF files, new links to the revised Leadership Page, a link to recent Dental History articles, and the page listing all the Museum exhibits. The colored map of the world has been enlarged to link to the membership directory for the continent selected. The Officer and Trustee News pages can be found at http://Fauchard.org/news/officers/indexviewall.html with a special page that collects links to recent additions for easy and quick review at http://Fauchard.org/news/sections/allnews.php. E-mail addresses are collected on a single page at http://Fauchard.org/news/sections/emaildir.php. The goal is for all Sections to have access to their online page by the end of 2009.

Web statistics over the last 8 years has demonstrated steady growth. The best month was May 2008, with some 56,000 pages viewed. The largest area viewed was Publications. Google ranks the PFA Web site 5 of 10 in popularity, which is good for the size of the organization. Google brings five times the traffic to the PFA Web site than the next search engine, Yahoo. The largest rate of Internet usage comes from North America, followed by Australia, and then Europe.

Membership

Total PFA membership as of 8 September 2008 is 7,758, with 4,111 members from the United States, 2,263 International members, and 1,384 Life and Honorary members. This reflects a total loss of about 100 members from a year before. While enrollments were steady, unpaid members totaled 1,958 offset the gains. Dr. Englander's assessment that recruitment and retention were two big problems that still need to be addressed.

Nominating Committee

Chairman William Winspear recommended the following officers for the year 2008-2009:

Dr. Steve K. Hedlund of Iowa for President-elect
Dr. Hubert Ouvrard of Paris for Vice President
Dr. Joseph C. Harris of Michigan was recommended for another three-year term as Trustee for Region 4
Dr. Ernesto Acuna of Mexico was recommended for another three-year term as Trustee for Region 7
Dr. Jose Dahan of Belgium was recommended for a three-year term as Trustee for Region 1
Dr. Kiyoshi Ohura of Japan was recommended for a three-year term as Trustee for Region 9

Editor's Report

Six issues of Dental World were created and published.

Your Editor Jim Brophy has been working with Larry Barrett on the Foundation Fundraising effort.

Hall of Fame Committee

Chair Kevin Roach reported a feverish year in 2007, followed by a quiet one in 2008. Four plaques for the nominees have been placed on the Wall of Fame in Paris. Dr. Roach completed a historical biographical sketch for Dr. Edward Angle. From the Committee, suggestions were made that 1) nominees only be considered after having been deceased for ten years; 2) that the Committee seek out nominees from the founders of dentistry as they seem to have a much greater support in their homelands; 3) that the ADA be impressed upon to host the location of our International Hall of Fame given the dental leadership in the United States.

Foundation Report

Executive Director Fred Halik discussed the grants that the Foundation had funded and how those projects had helped out individuals in their personal lives. The investment that the Foundation is making in the future of dentistry is outstanding in giving out their scholarships.

Grants Committee Report

Chair Gary Lowder noted that 35 grants had been received, totaling $327,112.58 for this year. One hundred twenty-one thousand, five hundred dollars had been budgeted for 53 U.S. and 28 international scholarships at $1500 each. Gary wanted to thank the reviewers who made deciding which grants to fund so much easier, and to Fred Halik for the extensive preparation in achieving a smooth review. Thanks to Larry Barrett, Jim Long, Carl Lundgren, Mike Perpich, Kevin Roach, and Nick Saccone for their efforts and time.

This year, 40% of the grants were submitted by PFA Fellows or were accompanied by letters of PFA Fellows involvement. This represents a significant membership interest.

Section Reports

These reports are filed under Section News.

Awards Committee

These annual Awards were reported in the 72nd annual Awards Ceremony section.

Section Chair Appointments

Dr. Edward Hirsch for Michigan
Dr. Jayne Boyd for New Hampshire
Dr. Cynthia Bolton and Dr. Scott Vines of North Carolina
Dr. Laurie Moeller, Louisiana co-Chair
Dr. Roger Turkel of Rhode Island
Dr. Ron Stifter of Wisconsin
Dr. Staci Gaffos of South Carolina

Unfinished Business

A dues increase was proposed to raise the international dues $10 from its current $100. U.S. dues had been increased last year. This was needed to balance the 2009 budget.