Our Association is at a crossroads. The most prevalent challenge for VDA members is change. Our Central Office staff has gone through significant personnel changes. Our profession is seeing significant economic, regulatory and demographic changes. We are challenged in many arenas by forces inside and outside our profession. Managing change (can you say Covid?), that is what I see as the next President-Elect’s mission. We are going to need to adapt and change for our members to survive and thrive. The things we see as challenges are going to need to be leveraged as opportunities. If we see new technologies like social media and online marketing as a threat to the way we have always practiced, then we need to excel in those areas to use them to our advantage. We will need to be proactive with changes on the horizon and work to shape our future to our and our patients’ advantage. Molding events in the future to our profession’s advantage, that is my vision for the next President. Even though we are challenged by these changes and influential forces, we must not let this be an inflection point that diminishes our professionalism or in any way lessens our reputation with our patients and the public at large. As Component Past-President, I said I would filter each decision through the prism of three questions. Is it good for member dentists? Is it good for patients? Is it good for the profession? At least two of those answers had to be “yes” before I could consider supporting an issue. Ideally, all three were a “yes”. That is my governing framework as President. Now, am I qualified to do that? That’s a difficult one to answer. I know I can handle the mechanics of the job. For instance, as Component VIII Program Chair I ran a successful CE program that was also revenue positive. However, I think my greater asset is sensing the need for a change and looming problems. As President I made changes to save money that were met with resistance but were, I think, the right choice. For example, I made the decision to end Yellow Pages advertising/bold listing for our Component. This saved $3600 and was implemented after I had our executive director track how many people called from that ad. In my first year as Speaker, I sensed that our opening session of HOD might have trouble achieving a quorum, based on past year difficulties. I anticipated the problem, mentioned it at our BOD meeting the day before, and researched and arranged how to handle that so the whole weekend and our HOD sessions would run smoothly. I also did what was needed to change our governing documents to prevent a recurrence. The VDA is a strong organization that deserves good leadership. If elected, I would use my talents and those of the people around me to further our cause. My only goal is to serve our members, patients and profession. Thank you for considering me.
CV - Dr. Scott Berman