Year in Review - Report from the Executive to the 2014 AGM

2013-14 Year

After the FCDSA June 2013 AGM, the executive has been busy building on the relationships established last year and working on the goals identified. Toufic Boulos (Montreal ’15) and myself attended the NDEB Annual General Meeting in October 2013 and I was able to attend the CDA Annual General Meeting in April 2014. Heather Patry (Dalhousie ’15) attended the ASDA Leadership Conference in October 2013 on behalf of Dalhousie. Our executive meets monthly by conference call.

CDA Annual General Meeting

The Canadian Dental Association (CDA) Annual General Meeting was held in Ottawa on April 10-12, 2014. The weekend consisted of:

  • A formal business meeting – AGM
  • Members from the Provincial Dental Associations and military went through the business agenda and discussed and voted on things such as an increase in fees.
  • Presentation from CDA Knowledge Networks
  • Review of CDAnet, electronic claims system – reiteration that the cost of electronic claims if paid for by each dentist without CDAnet works out to more than the cost of membership/dentist to the CDA
  • Awards luncheon – Outstanding Canadian dentists received awards for service both in the community and in the CDA
  • President’s Installation – Outgoing CDA President Dr. Peter Doig completed his term as President and Dr. Gary McDonald was installed as CDA President for the upcoming year.
  • Discussion on topics facing dentists: This year’s topic was the issue of referrals to specialists, what should be provided in the referral and what information should be provided back to the referring dentist.
  • Meeting with CDA Knowledge Networks – JCDA Oasis
  • How can the FCDSA work together with JCDA
  • Possible students corner or section of JCDA website with clinical discussions
  • Posting of stories or bio’s of council members
  • Posting about the upcoming AGM
  • Possible interview of council members at AGM
  • Working relationship established with Dr. John O’Keefe, Director of CDA Knowledge Networks and Dr. Chiraz Guessaier, Project Manager for OASIS – will develop and put into action ideas from this over the next year

Report on the NDEB Annual General Meeting, October 2013

  • Shannon Munsie (Western ’14) and Toufic Boulos (Montreal ’15) attended the National Dental Examining Board (NDEB) Annual Meeting in October 2013
  • The NDEB writes, administers and evaluates the NDEB (ie. Board examinations) written by graduating students
  • Reviewed finances: NDEB is a non-profit – the cost of the exam covers the cost of creating, administering and evaluating the exam and ensuring the security and fairness of the exam
  • Topics discussed: exam security, statistics of results, internationally trained dentist licensing and exams, NDEB offered in Canada, a few cities in the USA (Detroit and University of Minnesota) and in Sydney, AU

Year in Review

Council conference call: A council conference call was held on March 29, 2014. While quorum was not attained and no formal motions could be officially past, there was some great discussion and a presentation from Hayley Faulkner (Toronto ’15) about Sharing Smiles Day and inviting the schools who do not yet hold a Sharing Smiles Day to participate.

The committees and working groups created at the June 2013 AGM have been working to accomplish short-term goals and make progress on long-term goals and organization development.

External Communications Committee: The ECC oversees the FCDSA website. Most of this work was done by the Website Development Team. The Executive approved the email address secretariat@fcdsa.ca to be used on the website, which will be sent to Monique Bouchard at the FCDSA Secretariat and directed to its intended recipient from there. Other email addresses will be created as the need arises.

The Website Development Team: The WDT has created content for a FCDSA website which will launch in June 2014.

Internal Communications Committee: The ICC developed a PowerPoint presentation for use by member associations to introduce FCDSA to first year students. It launched the official Facebook page and helped with strategizing on branding and logo design. We have re-established contact with CDSPI’s marketing team after some staff changes and are working to design a logo. I discussed the possibility of a short FCDSA newsletter with the Knowledge Networks team at the CDA – this may be something for the new members of the Internal Communications Committee to consider.

IDSC Feasibility Working Group: A survey was sent out to all Canadian dental students. It was completed by ~35 students and the results indicate that students would like to see FCDSA involvement in the IDSC. Recent discussions have led us to consider starting our own FCDSA national conference, rather than the IDSC brand but this is to be explored by the upcoming working group.

Finance Committee: The FC has been working to strategize a sustainable financial model for the FCDSA. We attempted to obtain an additional sponsor. While we do not have another large sponsor yet, we have received support from CDSPI ($25,000) for the AGM, and from CDA ($5000) to help defray banking fees and unexpected expenses. NDEB gave $3000 in 2013 and has committed an annual grant of $4000 beginning in 2014 to have two representatives attend their AGM. CDA has committed to covering costs for one representative to attend the CDA AGM. ASDA will waive the registration fee for one member, but additional funding is still needed to send a delegate to the ASDA Annual Session next year.

Submitted to the FCDSA Council, June 2014
Shannon Munsie (Western '14), FCDSA President