Membership:  Khashayar Gharavi (Toronto '17) - Interim Vice-President and Chair, Toufic Boulos (Montréal '15), Nazanin Hojjati (McGill '15), Bryce Tung (Dalhousie '17).

Activities

The Executive took the lead of developing activity plans and related budgets.

The Finance Committee contacted a number of potential sponsors in order to evaluate the possibility of securing financial support for the FCDSA. Phone calls and personal meetings were the methods mainly used to initiate contact. Financial services continue to be managed by The Secretariat with the assistance of CDA staff.

Results

The Executive drafted activity plans and related budgets for 2015-2016. The 2015 AGM is funded through a $25,000 sponsorship received from CDSPI, while the bulk of the other governance-related activities (Executive and other committee meetings and activities) and administrative activities run through the secretariat are supported through the sponsorship in kind provided by the CDA. Two members of the Executive participated in NDEB Annual Meeting as part of an agreement with the NDEB, whereby the NDEB provides FCDSA with a yearly grant which allows two FCDSA representatives to attend the NDEB Annual Meeting in October of each year.

The CDA invited one FCDSA representative to their Annual General Meeting held in April, and provides funding for related travel and accommodation expenses.

CDSPI has invited a representative from FCDSA to participate in the new CDSPI Advisory Panel, and provides funding for related travel and accommodation expenses for attending the Advisory Panel’s annual meeting.

Lastly, ASDA invited an FCDSA representative to attend ASDA Annual Session and National Leadership Conference.  Unfortunately, as enough funding is not available, it was not possible for FCDSA to attend both and it was decided to only attend the ASDA Annual Session in February 2015.

The Finance Committee contacted a number of companies and organizations requesting financial support for the FCDSA:

  1. Exam Vison: Answered- Not interested in sponsoring FCDSA as a whole.
  2. Patterson Dental: No answer
  3. Invisalign: Not interested in sponsoring FCDSA as a whole.

Based on the conversations held with the companies, it seems that event based sponsorship, where their products can be showcased to dental students, is the preferred by the companies. This prompted the committee to explore other means of generating revenue.  The following are the options:

  1. Event based sponsorship (ie: Dental Student Conference): FCDSA should continue its work on the DSC working group and come up with a model and plan for a future DSC event.
  2. Website and social media sponsorship: continue developing the marketing kit and present it to companies.
  3. Member associations pay a contribution fee: Member associations paying a contribution fee to cover the accommodation costs of the AGM. A proposal is being finalized and will be sent to individual member associations by mid-September. It is hoped that member associations would get to review and respond to the proposal by late-September.
  4. Become involved in events held by individual member associations and seek sponsorships for their events: a proposal is being finalized and will be sent to individual member associations by mid-September. It is hoped that member associations would get to review and respond to the proposal by late-September.
  5. Revise travel expenses policy to reduce costs: discussions to be held by the executive members and necessary changes (ie: tip percentages, sharing rooms, cabs etc.) should be made before the next AGM.
  6. Set up a PayPal account to receive donations.
  7. Match dental applicants seeking interview classes to dental students willing to offer such services and charge a service fee.
  8. Charging membership fee from dental students (preferably directly from student tuition).

 The Secretariat provided a financial report of all revenues and expenditures for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014. A related proposed resolution is included at the end of this report.

 Summary and Reflection

Discussions with the Executive yielded the conclusion that the financing strategy of the FCDSA, as well as its fundraising strategy, should be revised. It seems that sponsors do not yet see the advantages of funding the federation as opposed to its member associations. It was also suggested that we may benefit from asking for sponsorship for specific events held by individual member associations. Official proposal will be sent by mid-September to be reviewed by member associations. Lastly, the sponsorship kit should be finalized and presented to companies during negotiation phases of sponsoring FCDSA. Other means of increasing revenue and decreasing costs have been mentioned in this report and decisions must be made by the next finance committee for the implementation of such ideas.

Next Steps

  1. In depth discussions are needed regarding a new financing/fundraising strategy.
  2. Tasks should be more widely separated among Finance Committee members, who should all initiate contacts with a set number of potential sponsors. It is recommended for the chair to assign certain tasks and deadline in order to increase efficiency and productivity among members.
  3. Finish development of the marketing kit and present companies with different sponsorship opportunities. 
  4. Finish and send a proposal to the member associations regarding FCDSA Council member involvement in planning local events and FCDSA helping to generate sponsorship funds for these events. A deadline of September 15th is recommended.
  5. Finish and send a proposal to the member associations regarding direct involvement (planning, acquiring sponsors etc.) in return for receiving portion of the revenue generated from the sponsors.  A deadline of September 15th is recommended.
  6. Revise travel expenses policy to reduce costs by Jan 2016.

 Proposed Resolutions

 BE IT RESOLVED that the proposed activity plan for 2015-2016 be approved as presented.

 BE IT RESOLVED that the Financial Statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014 be accepted as presented.